Lights, Camera, Hiccup!
by Warfang
Summary: What would happen if the Storm Hawks could critique the plot holes in the episodes? I hope to have help nailing all of the hiccups in this fic from the readers, please and thank you.
1. Chapter 1

I wonder if this has been done...

I do not own Storm Hawks! Sorry, I just had a HUGE test today that I thought I was to take on Thursday….yeah.

So, I'm taking the test, and then this thought blindsides me as I ponder oncogenes- what would the Storm Hawks and associated cast say about the plot holes? Here's a sample...

The Storm Hawks are collected onto a stage, with chairs and couches scattered around. The Storm Hawks line up on a seperate side from the Cyclonians, of whicn only Cyclonis and Dark Ace are present.

Aerrow clears his throat, and leans forward in his chair. "Okay, in the first episode, I get knocked out by the Dark Ace."

Dark Ace interrupts "Ah, that was a good time…"

Aerrow rolls his eyes and continues. "Anyway, the dagger I'm holding lands next to me, by my right hand, on the floor. But when I stand up, both of my daggers are on my back, so that I- what? Look cool when I draw them both and attack Cyclonis?"

Starling chimes in, leaning towards Aerrow and indicating across the room, "Let's not forget that despite having a stomach wound from Cyclonis, I delivered a flying kick into the Dark Ace."

Dark Ace rubs his head.

Cyclonis rolls her eyes.

Finn nodds, adding "Yeah, and the fact that Junko and I were falling out of the iced chamber and somehow are held in limbo until we hit the floor after the Atmos beacon is shattered."

Piper shrugs and points out, "So the people at Nerd Corp don't always get the plot right, and there are a few holes. That's what happens when there's a fight- a few details slip up in the story telling."

Stork shivers nervously from where he is standing near the exit, the farthest from the Cyclonians. "Somehow I get the feeling that Warfang wants to do a running gag fic about all the plot line mess ups. Like the one where I pilot in the InFinnity Episode. How the heck did the Condor go from flying, to Sahaar, to flying again? And how did Snipe take a Finn hostage without the others knowing?"

Warfang- I also want reviewers to help me remember exactly what Storm Hawk episodes have a mess up, hiccup, character fail, or overall, how did that happen against all logic moments. Credit will go to where it is due, just remember, I might miss it, but you and someone else might see it.

Personally, I just can't understand why the Dark Ace, in the Bale Winds episode, didn't just pull the wrench back out.

A/N: Anyway, I am having story therapy to help me get over the fact that I just had a test I was somewhat prepared for, knew the material, now I'm sick to my stoamch and praying that I passed. On the other hand, other than studying in other subjects, I can work on my other Storm Hawk stories when I finish classes! Whoo- hoo!


	2. Chapter 2

Lights, Camera, Hiccup! Chapter 2

Thanks to Minn-Maigi, Whisperthewolf, and aerrowluver1127 for reviewing! You guys have awesome hiccups!

And yes, I totally agree that the hiccups only add to the awesomeness of the Storm Hawks. It's just, there are hiccups, and then there are those really painful heaves that hurt. These hiccups are the former, the kind that everyone laughs at, even if the one hiccupping doesn't find it that funny.

I do not own Storm Hawks!

On with the Story!

Back at the stage, Finn is lounging on one of the couches. There's food on the table, with Dark Ace sighing as he slurps down a hot chocolate.

"What? I hate coffee."

Aerrow groans. "Coffee doesn't exist on Atmos, Dark Ace. Neither does hot chocolate."

Dark Ace ulps and looks to Master Cyclonis, who's giggling with Piper on the floor. They're looking over a television guide with the Storm Hawk episodes.

Noticing the Dark Ace looking at her, Cyclonis rolls her eyes. "I'll see about importing a few acres of cocoa beans to Cyclonia."

Dark Ace grins smugly at Aerrow and turns back to his hot chocolate.

Aerrow groans and stands up. "Isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that we are stuck in some place that isn't Atmos or the Far side that knows so much about us?"

Stork queries from across the room, opening and closing the only door from the stage that leads to a black expanse. "You mean, aren't we upset that they got so much wrong?"

Aerrow starts circling around the couch.

"Well, yes! I mean Junko, when we raced to get the frozen yogurt, he was with us when we were landing back at the Colonel's House! Then he came outside of the house, without ever going in! How did he do that?"

The Dark Ace pauses before taking another sip. His eyes narrow. "You wouldn't have happened to have cleaned them out of the creamy, low-fat, pink kind, did you?"

"Uhm, yeah." Aerrow responds.

The Dark Ace sets the hot chocolate aside. "I had to wait hours for them to make a new batch for Master Cyclonis because you couldn't take any other kind." He begins to advance on Aerrow.

Master Cyclonis throws up her hand. The Dark Ace halts. "It all worked out in the end, Dark Ace. Besides, my frozen yogurt was fresher than what they transported."

Dark Ace snarls at Aerrow and storms back to his hot chocolate.

Aerrow exhales. There is a limited amount of space in here. If he was going to fight the Dark Ace, he would need his armor and his twin daggers- wait, where were they?

Aerrow patted himself down. He had his armors and his daggers when he found himself in here. Aerrow begins to turn around, searching for the missing weapons.

He remembers having his weapons and armor when he walked in, now where were they?

Finn calls from across the room, "Dude, are you doing the Macarena? Cause you totally missed the hip move."

Piper and Cyclonis look at each other, and promptly slap their hands over their mouths in an attempt to not laugh.

"My weapons are missing. And so's my armor. I know I had them on when we came in…."

"Well, my armor's still on me." Finn called back, lying back down on the couch.

Aerrow turns around and looks at him. "No it's not."

Finn jerks up, grabbing his shoulder. His hand smacks into the armor plating. "Dude, not funny!"

Master Cyclonis and Piper begin to laugh.

Stork sighs. "Azarian laughing fever. It certainly portends ill when there's a relapse this bad."

Junko comes out of the gloom and passes Stork. He drags his feet over to Finn. The others wait with baited breath, their attention focused on him.

"I found a hallway and even with the busters I wound up back here."

The others sag against themselves.

"Well, we should be able to escape eventually. I mean, when I was having trouble training, that roller coaster came along and helped me out. But I still wonder where that second track came from." Aerrow rubs the back of his head.

"Maybe Ayrgyrn put it there. He was training us." Piper calls up. "Oooh, here's an episode I liked, 'The Code'."

Master Cyclonis leans over and reads the summary. "Isn't that the one from when I sent you to capture Terra Rex? Much more of a debilitating moral victory, crushing the Sky Knights and their morals. It was supposed t sway the public opinion to the Cyclonians' point of view and get them to rejoin us. What happened?"

Dark Ace pretends that the last question is aimed at Piper and holds his tongue.

"Well," Piper began, "it started with a Phoenix Crystal."

Cyclonis stares at her. Then she sits up and pulls Piper up with her.

"Tell me."

"Okay, Aerrow, Radarr and I are in a Phoenix nest, right? And we just get the crystal, and are turning to leave when Dark Ace uses a whip to collect the crystal from Aerrow. Well, the Phoenix shows up after that. Then it was a race out of the nest and into a lake to escape the Phoenix."

"That's all?" Master Cyclonis eyes Piper.

"No, but the race out of the cave was freaking weird. Dark Ace leaves before us without the Crystal. Dark Ace is level with Aerrow, then he's level with me, then he's taking off and I've tossed the crystal to Aerrow. Of course, when we get to our rides, Aerrow and I were falling, and Dark Ace was flying. He struck a deal with Harrier for the crystal. We all know how that ended." Piper rolls her eyes at the last statement.

"Yes, but how did the race against the Phoenix end?"

"My idea- we dove into the lake, and despite our rides not being fitted for underwater moves, made it out."

Master Cyclonis shakes her head. "That was…AWESOME! I'm never allowed to get a Phoenix crystal! They always send someone else to get it for me." She rocks on her legs and rolls back to a laying position. The men, Aerrow, Finn, and Dark Ace, all share a look of confusion. Dark Ace shrugs off the weird antics of his master and figures that it would do her some good to be a child with a friend.

Piper giggles. "Well, now you know why."

The girls fall into another giggle fit. Finn sighs and rolls over- and promptly rolls right off the couch. His hand flies out and smacks the ground in an attempt to break his fall.

"You okay?" Aerrow asks, coming around to check on him.

"Dude, my armor's gone." Finn stares up at Aerrow. As one, they turn to look at the Dark Ace, enjoying his hot chocolate. The Dark Ace looks at the Storm Hawks looking at him, and cocks his head to the side and raises an eyebrow.

"See something you like?"

Aerrow smacks his forehead.

"No, but I'm noticing that you still have your armor and your weapons, even though ours keep disappearing."

"And reappearing would seem to be the case." The Dark Ace comments. Aerrow puts his hand up, and sure enough, his daggers are on his back again. He never noticed them appear. He had just checked two minutes ago and they were gone! "I wouldn't be surprised if all Aerrow had to do was to put on a janitor's suit to find his weapons again. In fact, your weapons just got back, Aerrow."

"You sure that I pulled off the janitor's suit that fast, or maybe you just laughed longer than you thought."

Piper pipes up from the floor. "No, you really took off your clothes that fast. I was behind you. I saw."

The Dark Ace chokes on his drink, and Stork slams his head against the door that he is still trying to figure out.

Master Cyclonis looks at Piper. "Um, Piper…"

"What?"

"Do you know what you just said?"

"That Aerrow is fast. What about it?"

"Not in quite that context, but okay."

In the silence pervading the words, a chicken strolls across the floor. It's a white hen, and she fluffs herself, while looking around. She spots a blue fluff of tail in the rafters, and with a triumphant squawk, takes flight.

"Poor Radarr." Finn comments. "His girlfriend found him, and this place doesn't even have'romantic evening for two' privacy. She's going to be so mad."

Junko tilts his head up. "Where did the chicken come from?"

"Junko, the joke is, 'why did the chicken cross the road?'"

"No, Finn, that chicken wasn't here earlier. It must have come from outside!" Junko leapt up. "Ask Radarr to ask his girlfriend how she got here and then let's play charades to figure the way out!"

"Charades?" The Dark Ace glances bemusedly at them. "Haven't you taught the animal how to write?"

Aerrow whirled on him. "Radarr is not an animal, or a pet. He's our mission specialist and the best co-pilot ever."

"Actually, best co-pilot is me. Even with the whole murder and betrayal."

Aerrow glares. The Dark Ace slurps his hot chocolate.

"Ack! Hot!" The Dark Ace raises the glass and glances critically at the shadow of the liquid in the Styrofoam cup.

"I could have sworn I only had a swallow left in that cup. It couldn't have…." Rather than pour the glass out, Dark Ace pours some hot chocolate into another cup. Then he turns the second cup upside down.

The hot chocolate steams and falls to the floor. Aerrow watches with a confused expression. The hot chocolate continues to pour. And pour. And pour.

"Didn't you only put a small amount in there?" Aerrow asks, coming over to see the never ending hot chocolate making a puddle into a lake on the floor.

Master Cyclonis storms over and snatched the cup out of the Dark Ace's hand, crushing it.

"You almost ruined my suit." She hisses at him.

"Forgive me, master. I was wondering if-"

"Most likely we're in the place where oblivion crystals send things. Or one of the oblivion dimensions. That's the theory Piper and I are looking over right now. It would explain this total lack of disregard for physics."

Finn walks over, stepping around the brown lake that's steaming. "You don't have to be in Oblivion to disobey the laws of Physics. Okay, we were on Vapos, and I was shooting this ring that was in the tree."

"What happen? Did you miss?" Cyclonis jibes at Finn.

"No." Piper says, sitting on the back of the couch, her feet safely out of the way of the mess. "Finn got the ring. But he literally got the ring. It was falling straight down and he had to use two of his lenses to see the perfect shot, and then he spins and holds out his hand and the ring falls right into it!"

Stork sighs and leaves the door.

"In order for that ring to have fallen into his hand, the branch would have to have been above Finn, but he wouldn't need two lenses, or be holding the cross-bow at that angle in regard to his stance."

"And it falls right into my hands, instead of something uncool, like right next to me." Finn ends.

Stork sank into the chair. "It's hopeless. We're doomed. There's no way out of here and there are problems in our own world regarding basic rules that should apply to all living things."

Aerrow shook his head. "We'll make it out. So far, whoever did this has provided us with food, company, and sleeping arrangements."

Junko raised his hand.

"Yes, Junko."

"What about the bathrooms?"

Aerrow and everyone else paused.

"Um, I haven't needed them." Finn puts forth.

Dark Ace eyes his hot chocolate. "Ah, I-we might be needing them soon, though."

Over head, Radarr squawked. He jumped off the cross- beams and tugged on Aerrow's pants. He then leads the Storm Hawks over to the side, where a way up to the roof was revealed. Two doors at the top had the sign 'Ladies' on one and 'Men' on the other.

"Okay, that was creepy."

Stork wandered into the men's room, and then screamed.

Everyone present rushed into the restroom to assist. Well, Piper would have run in if Cyclonis hadn't pulled her to be at the back of the group. "These places can be disgusting." She hissed at Piper. She then activated the Levitation crystal to hover over the Dark Ace.

The restroom was actually spacious. There were full stalls for the toilets set along the left wall, which was the side the Ladies shared with them, and then there were shower stalls with glass doors or curtains that had a secure ante chamber before it. The aisle between the necessities was five feet, and at the end of the aisle was another door.

The Dark Ace pulled his sword from his back and held it ready.

Stork came out of the shower stall. "It's…it's…it's my glove! The one I lost!"

Finn made a 'huh' noise. "You mean the one you wore into the shower but after you reached for the towel it was gone?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, now I'm scared." Finn shook his head and turned around to leave.

"All of you get behind me." Aerrow looked at the Dark Ace.

"Well, what do you think is behind that door at the end?" The Dark Ace shot back at the non-verbal query.

Aerrow braced himself for the impact, and followed the Dark Ace as they crept along the aisle, past Stork who had frozen, and to the door. Aerrow nodded at the Dark Ace, who nodded back.

Piper and Cyclonis stifled their grins. They could see over the door, where there was a gap between the metal and the ceiling.

Aerrow pushed the door, before flinging it open, and the Dark Ace somersaulted and came up on one knee, ready to fight or defend.

He stared at the ornate bath tub. He looked around. There were shelves with bath oils and razors, and a few towel racks as well.

"All clear." He called back. Master Cyclonis and Piper began to snicker. Soon, the girls were having a full-blown guffawing session.

"Master Cyclonis, whatever you are laughing at, can you please do it elsewhere?"

"Sorry, hahaha, just, heehee, the thought of you actually fighting the bath tub came into my mind, because I remember the time you got soap suds in your eye and cursed the shower. You had cold water for –ahah- a week."

Cyclonis and Piper started giggling again.

"Okay, why don't you girls go check out your own bathroom and see if it's as neat as ours." Finn shot at them. Piper and Cyclonis gasped, looked at each other, and then levitated out of the bathroom and into the other one so fast that the doors slamming sounded simultaneously.

Their giggles could be heard through the wall.

"That could be awkward." Junko stated to the noises and shrieks coming through the wall.

"Not really." Dark Ace commented, slinging his sword back onto his back. "I learned to just shower whenever Ravess wasn't at the same time. The violin music was a giveaway."

Aerrow shook his head. "Look, let's just draw up a chart for turns-"

Stork cut him off. "I wouldn't suggest that to two females when we seem to be in a virtual prison- paradise."

Aerrow looked at him. "Why not?"

Stork elaborated. "They can sit in there for hours, bathing, chattering, shaving their legs, lathering, lotioning, the list goes on. Instead, I suggest that we all clean up together, and then abandon this level to the enjoyment of the girls for however long they'll be in here."

Finn shook his head. "If it's that bad, why'd Piper put up with the schedule?"

"Because Piper is efficient, and puts that above her own needs for the good of the team. Trust me on this, let Piper have some space and 'girl time'." Stork elaborated.

"I agree." Dark Ace stated. "It's heartwarming to see Master Cyclonis in high spirits, even if I am not the one to give her such joy."

"Dude, that's profound."

"Besides, while they are busy, I want to spar." The Dark Ace smirked at Aerrow. Aerrow grinned.

"You are so going to regret saying that."

The boys trooped out the restroom, leaving Piper and Cyclonis to gush over the Ladies room.

To be continued….

Wow. Again, thanks to my reviewers, aerrowluver1127 (), Whisper the wolf, and Minn-Maigi. I'm sorry that I didn't get to the blinking goggles or the Oracle Crystal, but perhaps chapter three will have that.

And I kinda like how this is playing out. There's almost a mix of Q&A with a story line, and I think that the flow will work. Again, I do not know all the hiccups, so if you spot one, please tell me, I'll credit you and put the hiccup in for the Storm Hawks to wonder about (or allude to- sorry about the vanishing glove, I just couldn't find a way for that hiccup to work itself into eight pages of Word document).

Okay, something that I wrote that might be OFFENSIVE- the line I replaced with when Stork finds his glove-

The Dark Ace pulled his sword free and held it ready. The actual weapon, you gutter-minded readers.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Storm Hawks! Also, the blinking goggles were pointed out by aerrowluver1127 and Minn-Maigi.

On with the story!

The Dark Ace blinked and tilted his head to the side. "Okay, that is creepy."

It was after practice, and to provide the light until they actually went to bed, the Storm Hawks had donned their light enhancing goggles. The girls were still upstairs, in the Ladies room. Just as Stork had predicted, it had been four hours, and they were still in there.

The reason for the goggles was because the above head lights would turn off for eight hours, then gradually lighten again. A near simulation of a full day. The lights had been dimming when Dark Ace called a halt to their practice and trooped up the stairs. The boys had showered, brushed their teeth, and fled back downstairs.

"What's creepy?" Aerrow asked, looking up from his tactics book. He was positive that in their third round, the Dark Ace had pulled a variation of a stunt that Piper had banned him from performing unless they were near an emergency hospital.

"Your goggles. They blink when you do."

"Oh, that's not creepy. It's a design flaw that I can't work out." Stork elaborated from where he was playing cards with Finn and Junko. "The refraction in the goggles blacks out when the eyes blink. It just does that."

The Dark Ace growled. "That doesn't stop it from being creepy."

He didn't see Finn nudge Junko, then Stork. Or signal Aerrow.

What the Dark Ace did notice was all the Storm Hawks looking at him and start blinking.

"AAAAAAGH!"

Upstairs, Master Cyclonis and Piper looked at each other. The bathroom had everything that a girl could need. There were six different smelling lotions to rub onto the skin after the bathing- Rose, Honeysuckle, Lavender, Violet, Ocean Breeze, and Pomegranate. Cyclonis and Piper had no idea what pomegranate was, but they agreed that the new scent would be the perfect prank on the boys. There were razors, lotion for the razors, oils, bath salts, candles, and a music station. There was even a towel warmer, slippers, lighted mirrors and dressers! The terry cloth robes were to die for, as well.

Good thing there were six of them.

"That sounded like the Dark Ace." Piper said, turning to Master Cyclonis.

"I know. It's when he doesn't sound angry that I get worried." Master Cyclonis then put her hand along Piper's head and pushed it forward again. "I'm only up to fifty-eight strokes. Hold still."

Piper sighed and acquiesced, loving the brush strokes through her hair.

A/N: This just hit me, so I thought "Why not?" …..I'm still working on that Oracle crystal.


	4. Chapter 4

Lights, Camera, Hiccup!

All hail the wonderful The Alien of Pluto! Without the reviews, you wouldn't have a fourth chapter so fast! ….and yeah, I'm still working on that oracle crystal….

I do not own Storm Hawks!

On with the story!

When the girls came down the next morning, they found the Dark Ace twitchy and clutching his hot chocolate.

"Everything okay?" Master Cyclonis queried.

The Dark Ace turned to her.

"Blinking…goggles…"

Master Cyclonis looked at Piper.

"Ah, it's a glitch that none of us gave much of a second thought to, but some people might be a little freaked out by them."

Master Cyclonis surveyed the once proud Dark Ace, clutching his hot chocolate and shaking. Well, shaking to someone who knew him. They were slight trembles to anyone who didn't.

Master Cyclonis soothed Dark Ace as Piper went to wake up her team mates. She would bet slime crystals to merb cabbages that Finn had been the one to suggest the blinking.

She couldn't wait to see if a prank war would erupt between Finn and the Dark Ace. That would be amusing to watch.

She leaned over Aerrow and waited. Green eyes blinked open. It was almost scary how Aerrow just seemed to know that there was someone near him and wake up. Yawning, he stretched and greeted her.

"Morning Piper. Did Dark Ace sleep at all last night?"

"Do you think he got any sleep?"

"Nope. Finn can be evil when he gets even."

Aerrow then proceeded to wake up Radarr, Junko, and Stork.

"Uh guys, where's Finn?"

Dark Ace twitched. He glanced around, looking up, then down. He pulled himself up, then with a snarl kicked the goggles that were at his feet across the room.

"That's it! I am going to hurt that marksman when he shows up!" Master Cyclonis handed Dark Ace a steaming mug of hot chocolate as the Storm Hawks sighed about the recent batch of trouble Finn had started.

"Well, the Cyclonian goggles blink too, don't they? Cause the Cyclonian Talons I swiped the Leecher crystals from didn't see me until their goggles turned red."

Finn walked by, munching on an apple. He walked within arm distance of Dark Ace, who was standing very, very still.

Dark Ace turned to Master Cyclonis. "I am going to take a shower and wake up from this nightmare." With that, he stalked over to the stairs.

Piper shot Cyclonis a look and waved her on after Dark Ace.

Cyclonis gave her a quizzical expression, before a grin lit up her face. Oh, the Dark Ace was going to love putting the pomegranate soap into Finn's daily routine. That stuff smelled very strongly.

Cyclonis waltzed after her adopted brother to help him get even and left the Storm Hawks to breakfast.

Now, some would say that it isn't smart to leave a Wallop in the room with lots of food. But Junko found that he could eat to pleasantly full and still there would be food for the others.

No worries there.

"Finn, don't you think you took that prank a little too far?" Aerrow asked with his plate of fruit, scrambled eggs, and sausage as he sat down dangerously tipping.

"Nah, I think that whatever he does in retaliation is gonna be hilarious. If he doesn't lighten up and handle the fact that he can't 'rescue' his precious Master Cyclonis from here, he's going to go crazy. Er."

Finn pulled a bag labeled Milk off of the serving tray and poured himself some.

Stork suspiciously nibbled on a variety of food, to the point where Piper sliced his food up and ate whatever he wouldn't touch, and handed the scraps off to Junko.

Radarr ate by sharing whatever Aerrow had on his plate.

The Dark Ace showed up later that morning and helped himself to the hot chocolate and a biscuit with cheese. He was a believer that fruit was a 'snack' only item.

Master Cyclonis helped herself to some fruit and yogurt. At the Dark Ace's glare, she also helped herself to toast and milk.

Aerrow cleaned up the mess, finding a broom and dust pan leaning against the wall. Finn helped by holding the dust pan. Piper looked around the room with Stork and Junko, searching for anything that might have changed from last night.

Nothing.

Sighing, the Storm Hawks flopped down and started throwing around ideas of what to do that day.

Aerrow began to play with his daggers. Piper and Stork sat near him, Radarr perching on the back of the couch. Finn and Junko sat across from him.

"Aerrow, please be careful-"

"DUDE! You nearly hit me!"

"-when you do that. What?"

Aerrow stared at Piper. He hadn't moved. Well, the dagger was still twirling around his hand, but he hadn't gotten up and crossed the room.

But he had distinctly just seen the others from where Finn and Junko were sitting. Aerrow gulped and put the daggers back on his back.

"Well, that's not the first time it happened. Remember when Finn lost my gloves? Aerrow came into the tower and switched positions just like that, too."

Finn, who was still in a crouching, bent over position to avoid the dagger, slowly uncurled. "I must have missed that when Ravess was bashing me up."

"No, it was when you were talking to me about bluffing and he came through the clock."

"O-kay." Finn stated, uncurling and leaning back into the couch. "Any one up for berry blitzt?"

"You are not using me for a target." The Dark Ace called over. Finn scowled.

"I was talking about a drawing."

"I wasn't."

Finn sulked. Piper got up and walked around. They were going crazy in here! There were no missions, no danger, training was becoming boring, and-

There went Finn with his air guitar.

Sigh. Somehow Piper knew things were desperate when watching Finn jump around was a source of entertainment.

"Back to saving the world with his rock, is he?" Stork grumbled. He should have found another way to tell Finn to just play his guitar.

Wait a minute…. "Finn, you played the guitar right handed when you fought Ravess' music canon. Why are you playing it left handed when you do the air guitar?"

"Dude, Stork, I'm ambidextrous. I can play with either hand; I just do better with my right."

The Dark Ace snorted. Coughing, he wiped his mouth and cleared his place setting.

"What's so funny?" Finn demanded.

"Nothing that a child would understand." The Dark Ace walked away from the group, hoping that he could get the rather dirty thoughts out of his head. Finn was fourteen! He was twenty- seven!

Master Cyclonis watched him begin to jog around the room. Well, at least he hadn't had a big breakfast.

She turned back to the Storm Hawks and started debating with them what to do.

"Perhaps I can join in the training? There's not much to eat up my time without a Terra to run. Besides, there's been something bothering me for a while."

"Really? What?" Piper looked up glaring at Finn who was hefting a pillow and looking at the Dark Ace.

A pillow fight was really out of the question.

"Well, when you shattered the Aurora stone, Aerrow, you combined your daggers to do it. How come that was the only time you've ever done that?"

Aerrow rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see, I did do it again, and they kinda got…stuck."

Master Cyclonis smirked. "And I suppose that's because you forgot to untwist them?"

Aerrow blinked. Then he blushed.

"Uhhm, yeah, that was probably it."

Piper glared at Cyclonis. Cyclonis coo'd and winked back at her. Piper blushed.

Jogging around the room, the Dark Ace rolled his eyes. Of course Master Cyclonis would take amusement in yanking the Storm Hawks around. He wondered if he should warn them. He passed the goggles he had kicked earlier.

Perhaps it would be better to let Master Cyclonis have her fun.

* * *

The day passed in training, ending with Piper and Cyclonis lecturing the boys about how to use Crystals. Dark Ace wished he had kept his mouth shut and not mentioned that he only used crystals if he could put them into his sword.

Master Cyclonis had given him her most imperious 'Sit down!' and began to talk with Piper.

Finn discretely passed pillows among the boys. Then he threw one at Piper after two hours of listening to the girls.

A free for all broke out. Dark Ace was so careful not to hit Master Cyclonis, that when he pulled back the pillow to whap Aerrow, he accidentally slammed it into Cyclonis' face.

He froze.

"Master Cyclonis, I am so-"

"It's a pillow fight, Dark Ace. And you missed your shot."

Aerrow had seized his pillow with both hands and delivered a smack-down to the Dark Ace on his chest. Dark Ace wound the pillow corner in his hand and hit right back.

Piper jumped and shoved Cyclonis out of the way on onto Finn's pillow fortress. Stork, Finn, and Junko eventually called a halt to the pillow fight.

"Guys, I have an idea. Clear the area and make a maze out of the couches. We'll need to stack them so that some people don't just jump over them."

Finn eyed the Dark Ace and Aerrow when he said that. They shrugged and caught their breath as Junko made a maze to Piper's specifications. Then they went to work. Piper spun around ten times and then rushed into the maze, so that she wouldn't have an unfair advantage.

The Hunt was on.

Stork crept through the walls, thinking that there was no way there were that many couches when they had been eating breakfast, but now there was enough to play with eight people in the whole room!

He ran as he heard a rustling of cloth from the other side of the wall. Then he ran past the same spot and checked who it was on the other side. He called the tactic a double-back and could be useful, such as when Radarr had the last bite of food.

Junko was on the other side, curled up on the couch in a hidden nook, and either sleeping or lying in wait.

He was probably lying in wait. Stork couldn't see a teddy bear.

Stork then very quietly moved to the far side of the maze and stayed there.

* * *

Dark Ace circled around Aerrow, having found him in a small clearing in the outskirts of the maze.

"This time, no mercy."

"You know what?" Aerrow stood up out of his battle ready position. "It's been bothering me for quite a while that you say that. I mean, I remember that you didn't kill me so that I could see Atmosia fall to Cyclonia, but you seem to keep getting yourself psyched up when all you do is lose."

The Dark Ace rolled his eyes. "It's because I ended so many Sky Knights before you came along."

"Really? Is that it? A shout out about your glory days?"

"No." Dark Ace looked uncomfortable. "Let's just fight."

"Oh, come on. Just answer the question. Why do you say it?"

"It's- dammit, honor is overrated. It's the Cyclonian Code to have a unique quote. What are they called in cartoons again?"

"I think it's a- no, not a gag line, or a punch line, it's a…a…" Aerrow stood there and snapped his fingers.

"What do they call a defining quote again? It's your….line?"

"Argh, I can't remember now. Let's just fight."

Aerrow threw the pillow at the Dark Ace and ran off. No way could he focus on the battle when he couldn't remember what the line was referred to as.

Dark Ace growled and let him go. That was another few hours of sleep lost to trying to remember what it was called. It was a fancy, two word statement that said that when a character says this line, any reader could recognize them, even when they couldn't see anything more than a speech bubble.

"Also," Aerrow popped his head around the maze opening behind the Dark Ace. "Isn't your memorable quote becoming 'Goodbye, Aerrow'?"

Then he was off again.

The Dark Ace shook his head. Hadn't Aerrow run out of the passage way in front of him?

* * *

Junko lay in wait, starring into the darkness. He didn't like the thought of Finn being out there alone, but Finn had told him to stay there if he didn't want to be moving around in the dark. Junko wished he had his teddy bear.

* * *

Finn pulled his head back as a pillow went flying over head. Piper and Cyclonis had found each other, and were beating each other to the point where there were feathers flying around.

Then they both froze.

"My nail…" Cyclonis wailed. Piper dropped her weapon and rushed over.

"Its okay, the paint's chipped. If the nail was broken, we'd need to trim both hands. Oooh, I know. A pedicure and some nail polish will fix this right up. Come on!"

Cyclonis stopped sniffling and cheered right up, grabbing Piper's hand. "Oh, and there's something I have to tell you. Aerrow's fun to tease, I'm not moving in on your boy."

"He's not my boy!"

Both girls ran out of the maze. Finn scratched the back of his head. The fight had gone from surreal to weird in record time.

Not even the fight against the Leviathan had been that weird, and Stork had rammed the ship into its mouth!

Shrugging, the marksman crept around the room. He was really bad at hand to hand combat, why had he suggested this game in the first place?

Oh yeah, everyone was getting stressed out.

Finn was turning around again when something landed on him, hog tied him, and gave a triumphant screech.

"Radarr! This is a pillow fight! Not a tie-up-Finn-and-leave-him-to-other's-mercy game!" Radarr chirruped at him and left.

Finn groaned. He did not want to be found like this. Forget it not being cool, Finn didn't want to be found by anyone except Junko, because he wouldn't think about what Finn could do to him if Finn found him tied up.

Of course, Junko was hiding out in a niche on the other side of the maze. Finn rolled himself onto his back, despite the protest of the weight on his shoulder, and proceeded to roll himself in a dead end and hide underneath an overpass.

He hoped Radarr didn't get Aerrow. Aerrow would be nice enough about it, but he would also think that Finn couldn't handle a fight.

Stork would grin about being doomed and help him out. But he would also insist that to show his gratitude, Finn read some of his dark poetry.

The last time Finn had read some of Stork's poetry, Aerrow had banned Stork from going near Finn until he stopped sobbing and became happy again.

The Dark Ace….Finn drew a blank.

Maybe the Dark Ace would just keep walking? But Finn had pulled that stunt with the goggles, but unless the Dark Ace messed with his hair gel, there wasn't really anything the old man could do.

Finn sighed and resigned himself to getting out of the roped before they came looking for him.

* * *

When Aerrow found Finn later, his "WHAT!" sounded a lot like the time he delivered the rozen yoga to the Colonel.

High pitched and coming through a bad connection on the radio.

Finn laughed so hard, he actually hurt himself. Aerrow cut through the bindings and helped Finn out of there, calling an end to the game; it was time to go to bed.

The Dark Ace, Stork, and Radarr came out of the maze, while Cyclonis and Piper came downstairs, giggling and waving their hands.

Stork gave them an odd look, then a hard stare, before sniffing the air. "ACK! Nail Polish! Run!"

Aerrow and Dark Ace looked at each other as Finn passed out.

"What's so dangerous about nail polish?" Aerrow queried.

"Oh, Dark Ace, care for a slumber party?" Master Cyclonis looked at her right hand man. The Dark Ace ulped.

"Actually, Master Cyclonis, I…."

Master Cyclonis was giving him the smile that said 'DISOBEY AND DIE' in a bright neon purple above her head.

"I…think that would be a great idea." The Dark Ace followed the girls to a section of the dismantled maze and surrendered his hands to their tortu- grooming.

Aerrow snuck off to help Finn.

"Aerrow, you'll stay once Stork agrees to look after Finn, right?" Piper called out, selecting an emery board from the basket of nail care products.

Cyclonis was pushing the cuticles back and trimming them on the Dark Ace's left hand.

Aerrow ulped. "Uh, sure, Piper. It might take awhile to find Stork, though."

"He's hiding in the men's room."

Traitor! Aerrow thought as Dark Ace chimed in. He reluctantly dragged Finn to the Men's Room and left Stork with some couch pillows and blankets to sleep on.

He then dragged himself back to the party. Radarr squawked when he saw him, grabbed a brush and leapt into Aerrow's lap.

Aerrow began brushing Radarr, watching the torture- session that the Dark Ace stoically went through.

"I think this shade of red will match his clothes, what do you think?" Piper held up a bottle.

Cyclonis accepted the bottle, shaked it, and wiped some on the paper towel. She then held the drying color to the Dark Ace's clothes.

"Hmmm. It would work, but I'd prefer a red that would go with his eyes…" She held the tissue to eye level with the Dark Ace, having to stretch upward to where he sat on the couch without the use of her hands.

Piper and Aerrow became very interested in their respective tasks.

The Dark Ace rolled his eyes.

Cyclonis grinned, and only the Dark Ace could see it. He gave the 'I'm not going to help or hinder' look, and she smiled.

I don't expect you too, she mouthed back.

"I think if we mix these colors together, we can get you what you want." Cyclonis sat back down and accepted the two new bottles, mixing them and holding the drying color up to the Dark Ace again.

"Yes, this will do quite nicely." The girls set to work.

Radarr, cleaned and groomed, leapt down from Aerrow's lap and left to go find Junko. He wanted to sleep, but Aerrow didn't look ready to sleep yet.

With a thankful sigh, the Dark Ace was released from his prison and allowed to go with his now dull painted red fingernails that matched his eyes.

He made the mistake of putting his head in his hand while watching the girls work on Aerrow, and Aerrow twitched.

"Something wrong, Sky Knight?" Cyclonis hissed as the hand she was working on was nearly yanked out her grasp.

"Promisenottopaintynailsgreen?"

"What?"

"Promise not to paint my nails green?"

"Aerrow," Piper interjected "green wouldn't compliment you. I'm thinking of nail varnish for him. Make them shine."

Cyclonis nodded. "Of course, that means we paint your toenails instead."

Aerrow heaved a sigh of relief.

The Dark rolled his eyes, and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Cyclonis asked, her attention focused on Aerrow's thumb.

"To bed. You should see about some sleep yourself once you're done, Master Cyclonis."

Cyclonis went to shoot back a reply, and yawned.

Which made Aerrow yawn.

Which made Piper yawn.

Which made Dark Ace say "You all need to go to bed soon. Good night."

A/N: Wow, thank you so much The Alien of Pluto! And like I said, you gave me so many ideas; they actually overflow into a fifth chapter! Thank you so much! And YamiPluto, you are right, that is something that will be a challenge to work into the story. But I'll do my best in the upcoming chapters!


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Storm Hawks! Credit goes to The Alien of Pluto for even more ideas, YamiPluto, and KennyDal (who suggested Truth or Dare). And I finally put the Crystal Hiccup in! Thanks to Minn-Maigi for pointing that out.

On with the story!

The morning after the impromptu slumber party, can be described as 'nonexistent'. Everyone slept in until the overhead lights were glowing at their brightest, and no amount of covers was going to make the light any dimmer.

With slight grumbles, they stumbled into the showers.

Piper and Cyclonis looked at each other.

5…4…3…2…1…

"AAAAAAAUUUGH!" Finn leapt out his shower stall, suds evident in his hair from the rich lather. "What is that smell!"

The Dark Ace began to laugh, glad for the two locks between himself and the enraged teen, but sad that he was missing the expression on Finn's face. He compromised by standing on the ledge in the outer cubicle.

"Do you like it? It's the prank back at you for the goggles yesterday."

Finn stared at him. "Dude, give the credit where it's due. You did not think up something this awesome by yourself."

Dark Ace managed to keep a straight face. "Of course I had help. You can figure out whom."

"I don't prank accomplices. That's just bad taste."

"Uuuh, Finn, could you please finish bathing and get decent?" Stork asked. He too had climbed up to see what the ruckus was, and was now ducking back behind the wall.

Finn looked at him. "Why? It just smells."

"You hit puberty."

"Who's that? I don't know anyone named that."

"Not a 'who' Finn, it's a 'what'. Remember when I walked onto the Condor Bridge and Piper said 'We definitely need to go clothes shopping?' That was because I hit puberty. There are a lot of other things that are about to happen too…" Aerrow's voice floated over the stall. He wasn't about to stand up and look. He also wished that Dark Ace would stand down instead of continuing to stare-off against Finn.

"Does this mean I get to grow a few more inches?"

"Yeah, that's one of them."

"Woohoo!"

"Seriously, Finn. Decency." Stork grumbled.

"The hot water is running out." Junko stated from the last shower, the only one big enough to fit him.

With a yelp, Finn flung himself back into the shower and finished in record time. He was the first one out, dried, and dressed before the others.

"How was the cold water?"

"There wasn't any." Dark Ace stalked by, heading towards breakfast and away from the strongly smelling marksman.

He would not admit to the prank backfiring on them.

Absolutely not.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, Piper dragging Finn to the side to explain 'birds and the bees'. There was a weak call for 'help' after Piper returned to the breakfast table.

"You did tell him that the growing pains stop, right?"

"Oh, I made sure I had his attention for everything."

The Dark Ace spoke up. "You forgot about the prostate."

"The what?"

The Dark Ace looked at the Storm Hawks. "Cyclonia teaches sex education rather than abstinence. Chances are you found that lecture you gave Finn in an old Cyclonian textbook. Here's the updated version."

Breakfast was no longer a quiet affair.

* * *

Piper groaned, pulling her head. "All this time I was getting it wrong?"

Cyclonis rubbed he shoulders soothingly. "It's okay, Piper. Statistics show that a comprehensive sex education delays the first sexual intercourse. As it is, Atmosia has a higher pregnancy rate because women are unaware of contraceptives since they weren't told about them."

Piper pulled her head up. "Contraceptives?"

Cyclonis sighed.

* * *

"Dude, we need to do something." Finn was pacing around the breakfast table, back and forth. Anything to distract them from what had happened at breakfast...

"Like what?" Aerrow asked. He was sitting down, wondering when they were going to get out of here. He really didn't need the bird and the bees lecture from the Dark Ace. He was still trying to cope with the Dark Ace pulling out glasses and settling them on his face.

Stork looked at Aerrow.

"You do know that the glasses were a prop, right?"

Aerrow looked at the helmsman. Then he groaned and set his head on the table, his arms pillowing the 'thunk'.

"I know!" Finn exclaimed loudly.

"How about a game of 'Truth or Dare'!"

The others stared at Finn.

"What, you have a better idea of how to spend the day? Come on!"

Finn started to pull couches and bean bags into a circle. Junko, as Wallops were different from humans, had been excused from the lecture. He came over to help Finn.

Soon, the others shrugged and walked over to the circle. They had been training the past two days, they could train in the afternoon. Not to mention, after the mental scarring, everyone could do with a laugh.

Finn sank into a lime green bean bag. He put his hands behind his head and stretched out. He glanced around the room. Then he shot up.

"Dude! Your-your nails! They're red!"

The Dark Ace glared at Finn. Finn gaped at him, and then settled down into the bean bag. He was so glad he could faint on command.

The others gathered around, Cyclonis sitting on a couch with Piper, Aerrow next to Piper, then Radarr, Finn, Junko, Stork, Dark Ace, and back to Cyclonis.

Finn put out, "So, who wants to go first?"

"I'll go." Piper looked determined.

"Okay, truth or dare?" Aerrow asked.

"Truth."

"Did you ever wonder how I got out of the Temple with the Oracles Crystal, but you didn't know until I gave it to you?"

"Oh, yes. I never saw a bulge where a crystal that size would be stored! I mean, it could have been on your Skimmer, but mine's the one with the storage space! Where'd you put it?"

Aerrow looked uncomfortable.

"Never mind. Your turn."

Radarr chirruped and pointed at Finn, indicating that he was just as happy to watch.

"Dude, truth or dare."

"Dare."

"Uhm…talk in your low voice. The one you got when you hit puberty."

Aerrow sighed, and then rolled his eyes.

"Is this what you wanted me to sound like, Finn?"

The others gaped at him. "Yes! That's two chores I don't have to do for a month! I told you Stork, he does so sound like Dark Ace!"

Finn smirked at the helmsman. Stork glared back at him. "Fine. I get to polish and wax the hangar next time."

"Deal."

Junko coughed. "Uh, Finn?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Dark Ace and Aerrow don't look so good."

Finn turned his head around.

Dark Ace and Aerrow were giving each other strangled looks. Aerrow even looked faintly green. Dark Ace just looked scandalized. Cyclonis buried her head into Piper's shoulder.

"That," she declared, raising her head "is freaking weird."

Finn gave a nervous chuckle. "Okay, so was I only one to notice that? That you two sound the same on some days and totally different on others?"

Aerrow nodded.

Junko intervened before the game ended up like breakfast had.

"Uh, Finn. Truth or dare?"

"Dude, I'll take a dare."

"I dare you…to stay out of trouble for the next two days."

"WHAT!"

"You heard me. There were no limits discussed at the beginning of the game. So no pranks and you have to follow orders, even when you get a brilliant idea."

"But when my brilliant ideas work, we're all saved so much time!"

Cyclonis interjected, "I take it the attempt to steal the Atmos Beacon back was your idea?"

"Oh come on, it was right there! We could get it, grab Aerrow, and meet back up at the Condor. No time lost! And a lot of risks avoided."

"Except what happened was that I caught you and nearly killed you."

"Well, if it hadn't been so cold, Junko would have shattered that ice patch."

"Really? I only saw small cracks before Aerrow tricked me into blasting it."

"That's 'cause you were outside the vaporizing container. Maybe you shattered the glass on the inside, Junko."

"I don't know, Finn. It was really cold."

Finn shrugged, and settled back. Trying to stay out of trouble when 'caution' was his middle name was going to be easy- the Dark Ace was grinning at him.

Maybe Junko would dig him a hole where he could hide.

Stork turned to Junko. "Okay, truth, where you will suffer public humiliation, or dare, where you risk life, limb, and public humiliation."

Junko looked at Stork. "Truth."

"Do you suck your thumb when you're upset?"

"Stork! That's low! Ask something else." Finn protested. Stork leveled a stare at the marksman. Finn glowered right back.

Sigh. "Fine. Junko, do you think about what you cook, or just use whatever's on hand?" Stork was glowering at Finn, who smiled at him. No, he grinned, and then settled back down.

Stork became aware that Dark Ace was now glowering at him. What? He wasn't glowering before Finn…smiled. Oh, mind-worms. They were infecting Dark Ace.

Junko was listing how he both planned what he would cook for them and use what they had on hand. Cyclonis was looking ill as the Wallop continued to describe how one time, Carver had told him about pop salt.

Piper noticed and asked her if she needed to lie down. Cyclonis shook her head. She then crawled across Piper's lap and into Aerrow's. She sighed, and settled in. Aerrow hesitated, and then began to stroke her head.

He couldn't believe he ate what Junko swore he served them. He knew Carver was a twisted individual, even for a Cyclonian, but this was disgusting!

"Urgh, Junko, who told you that pop salt was a good thing to serve?"

"Huh? Oh, Carver did."

Cyclonis gave Dark Ace a questioning look.

"The one you recruited from the Red Eagles, one pupil bigger than the other?"

"Oh, him. Urp." Cyclonis lay back down.

"I wondered if that was just me. His eyes really are one larger than the other." Aerrow settled in without disturbing Cyclonis.

"Perhaps it's a terra thing. Remember the reporter, Guy Skyly? His eyes are two different colors!" Piper threw in.

"Dude, I thought there was something memorable about that guy. I thought it was because we were seeing so much of him."

Dark Ace sighed. "Which reminds me, Stork. Isn't it the Dark Ace's turn to 'publicly humiliate' you?" Finn hinted that the game was to move along in a full and complete circle before becoming a free-for-all volunteer.

"Truth or dare?" Dark Ace drawled.

"Dare." Finn swung his head around to look at Stork. He hadn't been expecting Stork to do that!

"I dare you….to the fly the Condor into the Gorge."

"Already done that."

"…..what?"

"We were taking a shortcut to Terra whichever and fell into the gorge. Thankfully the moment of sunlight was only two hours away and we managed to cross over and back while facing imminent demise. Got another dare?"

Dark Ace paused for a moment. Then his face split into an evil grin.

"I dare you to let Finn drive the Condor."

Stork paled.

Finn twisted around.

"I already did that."

The color came back into Stork's cheeks. "You…what?"

"When you were recruited to look after the merb children. He had messed with the controls, so I actually flew the Condor when she was upside down."

Stork turned to Aerrow. "You let him fly the Condor?"

"Finn's the only one after you with the vision good enough to do it. And the Condor was upside down and kinda jittery to motion. Finn was the only one who could handle her. Junko might have been able to do something, but upside down? He's a mechanic, not a know-all."

Aerrow valiantly restrained himself from shrinking into the couch. As it was, he wasn't going to back down. Dark Ace was watching, and still trying to come up with a dare, and Cyclonis was regaining color in his lap.

Stork breathed deeply. "I am going to need my happy place after this."

"I dare...that's childish. I dare….that's stupid. I dare….argh." Dark Ace glowered at the helmsman.

"I dare you…to…compose a poem about the Storm Hawks."

Stork gave him a look of 'really?'.

"Dude, he made a poem about the time we had to obtain Serpegee from Murk Raiders to save the people of Vapos." Finn grinned up at him. "It was a great poem. And Stork contributed greatly to the rescue. Without him, it would've been a lot harder."

"And without you, it wouldn't have happened at all." Stork shot back.

"How about a recital of this poem instead? I dare you to relate the story of the rescue of Vapos."

"Dude! You can't change the dare!"

"He didn't accept the first one."

Finn paused, his mouth open, his finger raised, before he looked at Stork. "He's got a point. You didn't accept the first dare."

Stork sighed. "Fine. It happened when you, Piper, Radarr, and Junko left to get his tooth ache taken care of. You left Finn with me. He received a message asking him, the Great Domos-"

"Finn's the GREAT DOMOS!" Cyclonis sat up with a shriek. "How did that happen! I've been looking for that hidden terra forever, and not only did you find it, you obtained a rank!" She stared at Finn.

"I have clearly underestimated you."

"If I may continue?" Stork gave Cyclonis a pointed stare. She nodded and settled in between Aerrow and Piper.

"The message asked him to come there with great urgency. Finn told me I could either fight off Cyclonian carrier ships by myself, or we could go to Terra Vapos. At that point, I knew I wasn't getting any rest or reading while the others were gone."

"We arrive, and they send us out to find the dragon vomit that will save their terra. We go to where the absolute last piece is, and the Murk Raiders arrived ahead of us. Finn's brilliant idea goes from infiltrating the Murk Raiders, to stealing the Serpegee, to dancing with them. We finally escape, and it was my idea to split up, because they noticed straight away that the Serpegee was replaced with a chicken leg."

Radarr hissed.

"I know. So Finn arrives at Terra Vapos on his Skimmer, and I arrive…captured by the Murk Raiders. I had by chance my latest book of poems on me, with a repellent in the cover. I sprayed them and we ran inside. Finn gave me the Serpegee to throw in while he fights all of them off."

Dark Ace whistled. He gave Finn an appreciative glance, which Finn just shrugs in response. There were people to save, it wasn't like Stork could fight them off. "Stork's a faster runner than me, and the people were disappearing when we landed."

"So I throw the Serpegee in, and there is no reaction. I can hear Finn faintly fighting against the Murk Raiders, and I go over to the Serpegee to tell it just how not impressed I am with it- and it explodes in my face."

"By then, I was outside, and looking at a drop off of the Terra courtesy of the Murk Raider Captain Scabulous."

"But the King of Vapos interceded, and offered to pay the Murk Raiders."

Stork and Finn nodded to each other.

"What?" Aerrow asked.

"Well, you see, they wanted the Serpegee because they enjoy cooking and dancing, and as you can imagine, they were getting pretty tired of tongue splinters. So they were planning to sell the Serpegee." Finn explained.

"By offering to pay them, the Murk Raiders left in a more or less peaceful fashion."

"Offering to pay?" The Dark Ace cut in.

"Well, you see, nothing can ever truly leave Vapos." Stork explained. His smirk was positively evil. "Not to mention, Vapos is fully able to defend itself, so the Murk Raiders wouldn't be bothering them anytime soon."

Finn grinned. "Yep. Then we left after Stork recited his awesome poem-"

"Which I'm still waiting to hear." The Dark Ace grumbled.

"And we met up with you all." Finn finished.

Stork cleared his throat. "Here goes-

For all the people of Vapos, an epic poem about Finn. You think he knows what he's doin', but who are we really kiddin'?  
The Domo became a pirate, not as smooth as he could be. While looking for the Serpigree, he ended up doing the laundry.  
The raiders left with nothing. They got their just dessert. And despite the terrifying mortal danger, the Domo never got hurt. And once again Vapos is safe. The Domo saved the day. And in the words of this humble poet, Great Domo did... okay."

"That was rather...good." The Dark Ace nodded.

Stork bobbed his head in acknowledgement, while the Storm Hawks clapped.

Cyclonis leaned over to the Dark Ace.

"Truth or dare, Dark Ace?"

"I'll take truth- I have no idea what you would dare me to do when you can just order it."

Cyclonis gave him a wicked smile. Dark Ace gave her a blasé stare.

"Fine. Do you miss your old squadron?"

The Dark Ace froze. Everyone in the room stopped breathing.

"I…do not regret betraying them. I believe what I chose was the right path. But I do miss them."

Cyclonis nodded. She sank back into the couch, while Aerrow fought to contain himself.

"Piper, I do believe that it is my turn."

"Okay, Cyclonis, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to kiss Aerrow." The short, blunt statement had Dark Ace raising an eyebrow. The best retort Piper could come up with on such sort notice when emotionally distraught and sensitive to Aerrow's pain was to make the instrument of his torture kiss him?

How childish.

Cyclonis kept the smirk off her face as she swung around and straddled Aerrow. She put her hand under his chin and lifted his head.

"Chin up. I won't bite." Then she dove in.

Piper made a strangled sound while Cyclonis frenched Aerrow. After two minutes, she broke away, a string of saliva connecting them.

Cyclonis licked her lip, severing the string.

Aerrow was panting for breath.

"Your turn. Truth or dare."

Piper glared at Cyclonis. If she picked truth, Cyclonis would definitely query her in regards to the kiss or her reaction, so-

"Dare."

"I dare you to kiss Aerrow."

Piper gapped at her, but Cyclonis was already dragging her onto Aerrow's lap, while she transferred to the arm of the couch.

Piper trembled, gazing at Aerrow.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." He told her quietly. Piper smiled at him.

Then she threaded her fingers through the back of his hair and tilted his head back.

She kissed him, before running her tongue across his lower lip asking for entrance. It was weird at first, kissing someone she thought of as her brother.

_But he's not really your brother, and this is a dare._ A voice whispered in her head.

When Aerrow's mouth opened, her tongue snaked inside. Aerrow had rather nice mouth. She could still taste the toothpaste from when he had cleaned up, something sweet and tangy, and then there was another taste that became predominant the longer she kissed him.

It occurred to Piper that she and Aerrow had just shared Cyclonis' saliva, but she wasn't paying attention to that. She was noticing how, when she swiped her tongue over Aerrow's, his muscles would jump.

Ah, light headedness. She needed air.

Piper broke away. There was no saliva trail, but there was a loud gasp as they caught their breath.

Piper and Aerrow panted, attempting to get their breath back under control.

"Do you guys need some alone time, or should I be getting a camera?" At Finn's voice, Piper and Aerrow broke apart.

"Ah! NO! It was a dare! Just a dare."

Aerrow nodded. "Right. Just a dare."

Cyclonis sent Finn a positively evil look. Finn quirked an eyebrow at her.

'Too early.' He mouthed at her. Cyclonis stuck her tongue out at him, after realizing that Finn was willing to see where this went. But he had also shown that he would interfere.

"Right. Who's ready for dinner?" Dark Ace stood up and walked towards the table. "We can keep playing if you keep up with your food." The Storm Hawks and Master Cyclonis arose and made their plates before heading back to the circle to continue playing 'Truth or Dare'.

The Dark Ace saw to it that everyone went to bed at a decent hour.

A/N: Wow. That last bit….I wonder where it came from. *roots around in the back of her mind* Aha! The classic love triangle! Sorry if I didn't get to the idea you gave me, but I'll try to work it into future chapters! Thanks for all of the support!


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own Storm Hawks! In fact, most of the hiccups presented I did not find on my own, they are pointed out to be by these reviewers- The Alien of Pluto, YamiPluto, and KennyDal, you inspired what is to transpire next because it would have happened in chapter five if the 'Truth or Dare' game hadn't eaten it.

WARNING- this chapter contains shounen-ai, meaning two guys showing romantic interest in each other. So if you've picked up on the mixed signals the characters are dealing with, look out for the extra-serving (I promise this is the only blatant display in the work, please don't be offended- It's also my way of torturing characters)

More explanation on the warning at the end of the fanfic.

SHOUT OUT TO MINN-MAIGI! There will be doodles inspired by this fanfic in her Deviantart account, so if you want to see drawings, swing by her account in the near future! Thank you again!

On with the story!

The next morning was much more existent, with Aerrow and Finn building a stack of cards up into a miniature Condor.

Stork got a glazed look in his eye and forbade them from knocking it down. Radarr sniffed at the construction over lunch and the entire structure went down.

Radarr cried. Stork curled up in a ball and sobbed.

Finn scratched the back of his head. "You could probably make a newer, better one." Stork perked up. He then gathered all of the cards that had been used for the original and scurried off, away from the others.

Finn turned to the Dark Ace. "You know what really bothers me? The fact that we have been stuck in the same room for weeks and there has never been a change. I mean, we can get stuff like different couches and food, but why does the layout of the place stay the same?"

Dark Ace looked at Finn with a 'why-in-the-world-do-you-expect-me–to-know-the-answer-to-that' face.

Aerrow looked hurt that Finn wasn't asking him.

Piper brushed the emotion off as a squadron leader, while Cyclonis narrowed her eyes. So Dark Ace might have a little competition for Finn's full and complete attention, eh?

She would just make sure that Aerrow couldn't look at Finn as more than a brother.

A positively delicious idea began to brew inside of her head.

"I have an idea. Piper, you know how our bathtub is big enough to swim in?"

Piper nodded. Then she sat up. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"Oh, I know you know what you think you know I'm suggesting."

"That's terrific! I'll go get Junko to help." Piper leapt off the couch and dashed upstairs where Junko was practicing his folk singing to stay in tune.

Dark Ace, Aerrow, and Finn looked at each other.

Women.

* * *

Piper came back downstairs. "So, Cyclonis and I need your help. Think we can do it by tomorrow?"

"Oh, yeah, it's a great idea Piper. We were going a little stir crazy because we can't get out."

"Actually, being cooped up too long in one place is called 'cabin fever'."

"Oh."

Junko came down after Piper, and they both came over to Master Cyclonis and started whispering. Dark Ace hauled himself to his feet and wandered over to ask what all the commotion was about.

Master Cyclonis waved her hand at him and indicated that he was to amuse himself with the other Storm Hawks.

Dark Ace tried not to take offence, but he couldn't help but notice how much more time Piper was starting to eat into Master Cyclonis' attention.

Time that he used to have.

He walked back over to the red head and the blonde.

"So, you have any idea what they're up to?" Finn asked.

"No." snarled Dark Ace.

"Whoa, chill. Aerrow's touchy as it is with Piper giving Cyclonis so much attention. I just write it off as them being girls and us being guys." Finn held up his hands to show that he meant to calm Dark Ace down.

"So, did you and Aerrow ever agree on what your catch phrase was? Because he can't keep track of how many times you've said 'Goodbye Aerrow' and I only count a handful of the times you've said 'this time, no mercy'."

Dark Ace stared at Finn.

Now he remembers what the fancy two words were for specific, character imaging lines.

He felt like slamming his head against a wall.

Finns started to back away from Dark Ace. He didn't know what that look was and he really didn't want to find out.

Dark Ace didn't notice Finn sneaking off. He did notice Aerrow asking Finn if he was in trouble.

"I'm not scared." Finn retorted.

"You should be. To be scared and yet facing one's danger is what courage is-the strength to face your fears. What isn't okay is running away from your fears."

"Dude, highlight."

Aerrow sighed and put his hand on Finn's shoulder, steering him back to the Dark Ace. "What he means is, it's okay to be scared."

"Ooooh." Finn's response trailed up the octaves, the way a child's does when something finally clicks for them. "Why didn't he just say that?"

Dark Ace would have made a comment about how the 'he' was standing right here, but the 'oooh' sound Finn had made was still ringing in his ears. Aerrow was blushing slightly, averting his eyes from Finn.

Finn looked between them. "Never mind. If the explanation's that hard to summarize so I'll understand it, you're just wasting time. Hey, who wants to play B.S.?"

Aerrow and Dark Ace made a silent promise not to tell Finn that their thoughts weren't focusing on an explanation just then.

Finn pulled out the spare deck of cards and started shuffling.

"How about 'Knock' instead? Or Norwegian Rummy?" Dark Ace suggested, sitting down on a chair opposite Finn.

Aerrow glared at him, before sitting to Finn's left, so he would be dealt first.

Finn gave Dark Ace a curious look.

"What's Knock?"

"It's a card game. You are dealt four cards face down, and the goal of the game is to get the lowest score. You can only look at the two middle cards once before the game begins. Then you begin drawing cards. You can only take from the top of either the discard pile or the drawing pile. The no point cards are Jacks. The single points are Aces. Everything else is worth its face value. When you think you have the lowest hand, you don't draw a card, but you knock. Then everyone gets one more chance to switch cards and then you flip them over. The one with the lowest score wins."

Finn stared at him.

"Dude! We have a game just like that, only we call it 'Polish poker.'"

"Is that so." The Dark Ace didn't blink.

"I love that game. It's the only one I know that actually forces you to remember what you have and estimate what other's have."

"Okay, four face down…"

Finn dealt the cards.

* * *

Cyclonis and Piper finished marking out the dimensions of their soon-to-be pool. Three feet at one end, six feet in the middle, with nine feet at the end. The nine foot strip was to be only five and a half feet wide, and the rest of the pool being roughly thirty feet.

It was perfect. They could play so many water games with eight people, even if Radarr sat out, there were still plenty of people.

"Sharks and minnows, Category, Marco Polo, Finn's Crazy Idea, diving, laps…."

Cyclonis cut her eyes to Piper.

"What's Finn's Crazy Idea?"

"Well, underwater is a bit mysterious for Finn. So he swims between your legs and you don't feel it. He's really good. Aerrow was the one who caught him, because he noticed Finn wasn't cooking and looked down in the water since he saw a shadow. Then it became a kind of game."

Piper rolled her eyes. "I got tired of them sneaking around us, and had Junko, Stork and I stand in a line, then in a circle, then spaced apart a bit. They still swam underneath us, never touched us, and could do it in one breath."

Cyclonis eyes' began to gleam.

"Just what does that look mean?"

"Dark Ace doesn't know."

Piper quirked an eyebrow, then she grinned. Soon, they were full out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Junko asked.

"Oh, if we pull this off, it'll be hilarious."

Junko shrugged. He apparently hadn't heard them. Otherwise, he would be warning Finn.

* * *

"Okay, the Dark Ace five, Aerrow three, me zippo." Finn tallied up the past eight games. "How in the world are you two so good at this game?"

"Maybe because we aren't dealt Jacks under both of our outer cards?" Aerrow suggested.

"Or forget about the ace we were dealt in the middle." The Dark Ace pointed out. For a marksman, Finn had a horrible memory.

Finn sighed. HE then dealt the cards again. His turn to go first. Finn looked at his cards, and without even flipping them, he knocked.

Aerrow and Dark Ace stared at him.

"You sure you want to do that, Finn?"

"Yeah." Aerrow and Dark Ace looked at their cards, and Aerrow drew. He pulled the card, looked at it, and switched it out for a king. Dark Ace pulled, and discarded straight away a seven.

They flipped over.

Aerrow had a two, five, ace, and nine.

Dark Ace had a jack, six, four, and five.

Finn had an ace, jack, jack, four.

Finn stared at his cards. "Yay, one round for me."

Dark Ace cleared his throat. "Perhaps another game? Stork, would you be so kind as to teach them Euchre?"

Stork, who had finished his scaled and detailed Condor replica, walked over to the group. "Okay. Give me the deck. Aerrow, you're my partner. Finn, you and Dark Ace are partners."

"Aw, man."

"Here are the rules…"

* * *

Cyclonis looked at the hole in the ground and back at the map. "Piper, are you certain that we can get this done?"

"Oh, yeah. Junko is really strong. When I first met him, he carried all of us to safety on a hand-made Skimmer! He can output more energy to keep himself afloat than any other person I've seen. He just needs a working engine- well, not even that. Remember when Snipe built that huge battleship?"

Cyclonis nodded. What a waste of supplies. She had the Nightcrawlers pick it clean and recycled as much as she could from that fiasco.

How Ravess convinced her to do it was beyond her- oh wait, she wanted something for the Talons to do to occupy themselves.

"Well, Junko, Tynki, Aerrow, Finn, and I were on the ship when it was going down. Junko held the wreckage that was his Skimmer together with his thighs and hands and got us all to safety. He is that strong."

Cyclonis whistled. She had heard of Wallops, and even seen some, but Junko certainly impressed her.

"He is intelligent to have figured that out."

"He is. In fact, some days I'm certain he's smarter than Finn."

"Hey, now, that's not exactly nice…to Junko."

Piper and Cyclonis giggled. Across the room, Finn's shoulders slumped. Sure, he couldn't win at cards, he wasn't smart, and he was a coward, but his eyes and ears worked just fine!

Finn felt a sniffle start to build up. He pushed the negative thoughts away. Too late. The cards were blurring in front of him.

"I, um, bid three tricks with diamonds." After all, he was holding the Jack of diamonds and hearts, along with the Ace and Queen of diamonds.

Aerrow and Finn passed, with Dark Ace raising the tricks to four.

Finn led out.

* * *

Piper and Cyclonis continued to giggle across the room. Picking on Finn was so much fun! He was goofy, cute, sweet, and so self-centered that he wouldn't know that they were insulting him!

In other words, he was perfect.

"And then after I refused to be your friend, he offered to let me braid his hair."

There was a scrape from across the room. Finn had stood up, without pushing his chair back first.

"I need to go. I'll be back in a while. Deal me in when I'm back." Finn escaped to the stairs and the door to the men's room slammed.

Piper and Cyclonis stopped giggling. "Think he heard us?" Piper whispered to Cyclonis.

"The whole Atmos could hear you." Stork stated in a normal voice. It carried across the room and slapped Piper in the face.

Ooops.

She'd been having such a great time; she forgot that her fun had come at Finn's expense.

"Piper." Aerrow stood up from the table as well. "We need to talk." Piper already knew that she was in for a scolding.

Cyclonis twisted. She could feel the disappointment radiating off of Dark Ace, even though he had yet to say anything. Instead, he was counting four piles of cards and tallying up a score.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"We aren't Storm Hawks, Master Cyclonis. If you want to mock others at their expense, go right ahead. It's not like you're looking for any friends to hang out with."

Cyclonis started violently, and then fled to other side of the room.

"Harsh." Stork murmured to him.

"She's a child. She hardly understands that what she was doing is considered mean and cruel. I've whipped men in the Talon squadrons for ostracizing a fellow Talon."

Stork hmm'd and dealt a new hand.

"This game is called 'go fish'."

* * *

Junko walked into the Men's room. Finn would say that he wanted to be alone, and Junko would give him half-an-hour before he went looking for him.

The water was running. Junko would be worried if it was the bath tub, as Finn had scars on his wrist from 'accidents' that Junko didn't know whether to believe or not.

The shower was running. Even for a Wallop, Junko could smell the salt that meant Finn was crying.

Except that Finn didn't cry. He had horrible, breathless heaves that disabled his breathing and caused him to pass out.

For Finn to be crying meant that he was hurt, and that the hurt had been building inside of him while he didn't say anything. This wasn't a 'fit' as Stork liked to call them

Junko cautiously proceeded to the small shower stall. He winced as Finn's thin back came into view. He'd been clawing at himself again.

"Hey buddy." Junko called softly. Finn had taken off his shirt, but his pants were on and soaked. He turned his face to Junko as the Wallop squeezed in. Finn looked at him, and then away.

"Why am I not good enough? My parents didn't want me, Piper's always mad at me, Aerrow wishes I was braver, Stork hates me, Radarr won't have anything to do with me, and you hang out with me cause the others are too busy to."

Junko mentally attacked the biased critique. He brought in a deep breath, and felt mist and steam come into his lungs.

Cough Cough "Finn, how hot is that water?"

"Not hot enough."

Junko stuck his hand in, yelled, and twisted the cold water knob so fast it broke.

But now Finn wouldn't get third degree burns.

As it was, his skin was read and blotchy from what Junko realized wasn't clawing, because Finn couldn't reach that much of his back.

He must have had the hot water hitting his back in a twisted version of penance for 'being a failure'.

"Finn, buddy, it's not that bad."

Finn must have turned himself around when Junko came in. He had the sharpest hearing of any human Junko knew.

"You know Piper only gets annoyed at you. Aerrow loves you for who you are, Stork tolerates your jokes pretty well, and I would hang out with you even if the others weren't busy. Because you're my buddy."

It wasn't so much the words as the soothing tone, Junko had realized over time that helped pull Finn back. Wherever he went in his head was a 'bad place' that wouldn't let Finn go and told him all sorts of horrible things.

Stork had called it 'depression'.

"I found my parents." Junko started. As happy as he was that Finn still had relatives, talking about good things when Finn was in this state was about as possible as Dark Ace singing 'I'm a little tea pot' sober.

"They abandoned me. Willfully. I have a brother. He's considered gifted and stronger than me. They picked him over me. I wasn't worth the effort because I was second born."

Finn sank into himself, his body curling around. "Where I'm from there is no second place to show that you competed. You're either first, or not worth dirt."

Junko felt the air whoosh out of him. No wonder Finn hadn't just gone along with the teasing like he usually did. He hadn't told the others before that he had found his parents- just a couple that looked like him.

In fact, Junko always secretly wished that Finn wouldn't have parents. The Storm Hawks was Finn's family. He didn't need anyone else. Another family meant they'd have to share Finn with them.

"But dirt is really helpful, Finn. It builds up our Terras, gives us food, and even helps cure most ails!"

"The Terras are mountains, so that's rock. Food doesn't come from dirt, it comes from plants that use water and sunlight. Dirt just anchors it. And that's mud you're talking about for beauty tips."

Finn sank into himself. "Just go away Junko."

"Finn…"

"I said GO AWAY!" The breathless shriek had Junko back pedaling out of the stall. He left the Men's room.

He came downstairs, where all the others were looking at the general direction of the scream. Piper was white. Cyclonis looked ill.

"I, uhm, suggest no one goes up there for a moment. This is a pretty bad episode. Turns out, it wasn't just you two laughing at him," Junko mustered the strongest disapproving glare he could give the two girls, who looked upset as it was, "but he found his parents."

Aerrow gave a low breath of air. "Oh no. He…?"

Junko nodded.

Cyclonis edged her way around the Storm Hawks. She needed to apologize and fast. "If you go now, he'll hurt you and feel even worse." Dark Ace called up.

"Why don't you and Piper finish the pool and present it to Finn as an apology? I'll go talk to him."

"Uh, Dark Ace, Finn is rather past the point of talking." Aerrow attempted to stop him.

"You have your way, I have mine." Dark Ace cryptically answered, and then he headed off to the Men's Room.

Piper and Cyclonis threw themselves into their work with a fervor that made the others stand back. Soon, the foundation was laid to dry, and then a water fall, like gold miners use, was set to fill the pool up once the layer and walls were dried and sealed.

Cyclonis and Piper dropped from exhaustion. Aerrow came over and handed them some water.

"I wonder how Dark Ace is faring."

"I think he's okay. He used to get me through some of my darker moments." Cyclonis graciously accepted the water.

Piper nodded. "Yeah, Finn is Finn. When the tough gets going, he keeps up. I just…forget that, because he's so carefree."

Cyclonis and Piper were so taking Finn up on the hair braiding offer later. After all, he did have the longest hair, including Stork.

* * *

Dark Ace strode into the Men's room. He placed a chair in front of the door, under the knob, blocking others from following him in.

This was going to be delicate. But Dark Ace didn't do delicate.

He then turned on the fan. It was loud, all the more perfect for not repeating the mistake that Junko had done- allowing outsiders to overhear. Next was to glide over to the end of the hall and fill up the tub.

Right now, all that existed was Finn and Dark Ace.

He walked over to the stall. Reaching in, he hauled Finn to his feet. Then he carried him to the awaiting bath of ice water.

* * *

Finn coughed and spluttered, resorting to cursing the Dark Ace as he dunked Finn again. The water was filthy with blood and soap.

The Dark Ace was bathing him like he was some kid! He was not going to stand for it!

"Do you have some philosophy that keeps you from hitting girls? Because I know you fought against Ravess in the past."

"Damn" splutter "you."

"No, damn you, Finn. You won't even stand up for yourself. No wonder you think you're weak. You have to know somewhere in the Storm Brat head of yours that if you want to be yourself, you have to do that to even your friends, or they're not worth you."

"Don't say that about Aerrow!"

"Oh? Just Aerrow?"

Finn stopped thrashing. He sank into the tub. The water was freezing, but his bloody skin wasn't coming off and shrinking like it normally did. It probably had something to do with the vial Dark Ace had thrown in before he stripped Finn and dumped him in too.

"Aerrow didn't have to take me. All I'm good at is being a sharp shooter."

Dark Ace put his hand on Finn's head and dunked him under again. This time he held him down for a few extra seconds before lifting him up.

"Wrong answer."

Finn spat at him. His eyes flashed. "You can't change me! You don't even care! I bet you're getting a kick out of this, too."

"Yes, because I certainly loved it when Lightning Strike dunked me as well when I got depressed."

"You…whaaaaaat?"

"I was depressed before I served Master Cyclonis. I couldn't see all the good I was doing. I wasn't even considered a full squadron member despite my skills because of my age. Master Cyclonis is the only one who ever made me feel like I had self worth. So no, I can't change you. You change yourself. And of course I don't care, I get urges to go around and dunk idiots into ice cold baths instead of leaving them to sulk like children, because I don't see them making anything of themselves."

"Well, guess what, Finn. The past few weeks we've been trapped here, circling each other like dogs before we called a truce to work together to escape you've been doing a very key job- keeping the team spirit up. You've been putting their happiness before yours because you love them."

"I know what Piper and Cyclonis did is wrong, but they're girls. Sometimes they don't realize that they can be a real bitch. I bet they weren't even thinking when they were talking about you. And you know what? They feel horrible. While you've been beating yourself up, they've been making a pool for you. It's their apology," the Dark Ace let go of Finn's head. "and their thanks. They do know better Finn. But haven't you ever done something and forgot that it could inconvenience others? They were being self-centered, and you were just a target. They didn't mean too."

Dark Ace watched as Finn held his gaze. With a sigh, Finn came closer to the edge and hugged Dark Ace.

So what if he was getting wet? He could dry off later.

Dark Ace hugged Finn back and held him as the last vestiges of Darkness drained from him. Finn was a relatively quiet person who didn't express his emotions often.

Dark Ace nearly snorted as he remembered the psychologist on Cyclonia who had told him that laughing more would be good for his health.

He held Finn tighter.

Geez, were his clothes soaked.

Clothes.

Finn.

Tub.

Naked.

Oh, Master Cyclonis, was he glad he locked that door so no one could see the predicament he was in now.

Dark Ace fixed his eyes on a spot past Finn on the wall. This was going to be awkward when Finn decided to face the music any second now.

Finn started to un-wrap his arms. He pulled back, looking into the Dark Ace's red eyes.

"Thank you."

Dark Ace fought to keep the blood from going south. Taking advantage of emotionally drained boys was not something he did. Even if they did look like god wrapped in wet skin over a thin frame that would look good thrown back in an arch as he-

Down boy.

Dark Ace nodded, and stood up. He passed Finn a towel, who laughed and accepted it.

"Damn, my clothes are ruined."

Clothes thrown hap-hazardly on the floor, silken boxers teasing his hands as he traced those slim hips to his prize-

The HELL had that come from?

Dark Ace refrained from shaking his head, as Finn might misunderstand and keep silent about it.

"Everything okay?"

"Everything is fine, it's just, if I go down there and tell Aerrow I ruined your clothes, he's going to rip my head off and shove it down my throat so far I'll have to bend over to see the light."

Finn giggled.

"It's not funny." Dark Ace dead panned.

"I- hahahahahahahahahahahahah-wheeze- HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Finn collapsed against the tub. He kept laughing. Dark Ace grinned.

"Or he'll twist me so badly I'll have to wriggle my ears to walk."

Finn snorted.

Dark Ace kept up the amusing commentary until Finn collapsed against the floor, begging him to stop, his stomach couldn't take anymore.

Dark Ace grinned.

"Feel better?"

"I-loads. I feel so much better."

Dark Ace smiled. He then helped Finn find an extra pair of clothing, without armor, and headed downstairs with him.

* * *

Finn had walked over to Piper and Cyclonis. They had apologized, and hugged him. Cyclonis had sniffed Finn, but refrained from asking about the healing salve.

Dark Ace breathed out a sigh of relief. As sad as he was that Cyclonis was growing up and growing distant, he wouldn't entrust her to anyone beside the Storm Hawks.

Aerrow walked over to Dark Ace.

"How?"

"I negotiated with him. Very persuasively." Aerrow decided that he didn't need to know the story behind that grin just yet.

"Okay, while dinner has been served, apparently we get to cook it ourselves. Then we wait an hour before swimming. It's time for a-"

"BAR-BE-QUE! Sweet!"

Thankfully, Finn hadn't yelled in their ears, as Piper and Cyclonis wince, before they started grinning.

Dinner was a happy affair. The moments that really stood out where when, instead of handing her a napkin, Aerrow leaned over and wiped the sauce off of Piper's face with his hand.

Cyclonis started looking around for her napkin because of the sauce on her fingers, and Finn mimed licking them off to her.

She held her hand out to him.

Everyone burst out laughing, and the Dark Ace made a choking sound, before indicating that Cyclonis was to lick her own hand. She had gone scarlet and began to lick her fingers.

Piper and Aerrow found their full attention diverted from laughing to following those lips and that pink tongue when it darted out to get sauce from a wrinkle on her finger.

Piper swallowed hard, and Aerrow got up to get more lemonade. He nearly walked into the bar-be-que pit while watching Master Cyclonis.

Finn chuckled warmly and dug into his own sandwich. The sauce got all over his face.

Bending down, licking off the sauce and finally swirling his tongue into that mouth seemed so appealing to Dark Ace.

He discreetly pinched himself. Hard. Where in the Wasteland were these thoughts coming from?

They certainly weren't his! And he was into women! Just like Finn was!

Shame Finn was into women, he had a bisexual figure….an androgynous one.

Dark Ace proceeded to dig his nails in.

Stork sighed. They were all infected by mind-worms. It wasn't long before he was infected and killed to.

* * *

The swimming pool was finished. There were games to play, like Piper had been looking forward too. Unfortunately, there was only time for a few games because they had to wait after dinner to go swimming again.

All too soon it was time for bed. The Storm Hawks didn't complain, and washed their hair free of the chlorine.

Cyclonis grumbled about the chemical feeling and Piper helped her scour her hair until it actually squeaked.

Cyclonis could still feel the chlorine, but it was better. She thanked Piper and headed to bed.

That night, she had a dream.

* * *

Cyclonis walked the stage, looking for a way out. There had to be a way. A deep voice chuckled behind her.

_You don't know where you are, do you?_

Cyclonis spun around.

_Well, allow me to enlighten you. You are in what's known as…a mind._

Cyclonis frowned. That didn't make any sense.

_You are a memory, drifting around and warped by the desires of the host. There is no new knowledge of you. You do not fully exist beyond this space._

Cyclonis started to shake. Okay, this was disturbing.

_No knowledge of how you arrived, no knowledge of how to leave…are you certain you are even the real Cyclonis? How can you prove it?_

The dream faded away. Cyclonis sat up with a gasp, but whatever had her awake in such a panic was already melting into the shadows.

She groaned and set her head into her knees.

"Master?" Dark Ace called softly from where he slept a respectable distance away, with his sword within reach to protect her.

"Are you okay? Do you want some water?"

"I'm fine, Dark Ace. Thank you, but no." Cyclonis flopped down and turned over, her head reeling.

What had woken her up?

But as she fell asleep, there were no answers; the incident was gone from Dark Ace and Cyclonis' minds when they awoke.

* * *

The new day dawned earlier than usual. The pool was still there. But now there were lawn chairs, tables, sun tan lotion, and toys.

The toys in particular, the water guns, woke up Dark Ace to Finn and Aerrow laughing uproariously. He glared at them, and then fetched the water gun that Cyclonis presented him with.

The war was on.

"No running!" Piper yelled. The boys slowed down their speed, but they didn't stop either.

Piper sighed. "They're going to get hurt."

"Not when they're running on sand."

"Huh?" Piper turned to Stork. "Sand?"

Stork nodded, and pointed to the ground. Sure enough, there was sand there, coating the men as they chased each other and managed to get soaking wet.

"But how…?"

"Probably our mysterious benefactor encouraging us to have fun." Stork grinned at her. "We're doomed anyways. Tag team against them?"

Piper and Cyclonis nodded.

Dark Ace, Aerrow, and Finn all yelped and ran when the new arrivals joined in. Soon, it was three on three.

Then Junko found the water balloons and Radarr found the faucet to them too.

Soon it was six against two. Junko actually had very good aim, and so did Radarr. After a truce was called, they all settled down to breakfast, emptying their weapons and leaving them on the ground.

Dark Ace sat down with his plate, partially dry after the battle. He shot up again, yelping and grabbing the seat of his pants.

He turned and looked into his seat. Sitting there innocently was a yellow sponge, oozing water. His butt was wet. Wet butts are not fun. But they certainly are funny to show the breakfast group that Finn had got you with a classic stunt. Everyone was snickering into their breakfast.

Dark Ace removed the sponge and sat down primly in his seat to continue eating.

At least, he suspected Finn was the one to pull that practical joke.

After breakfast they rested. No one was allowed in the water for the next hour, Dark Ace made that very clear.

Finn amused himself by seeing what all the toys were. Soon, his exclamations of delight, wonder, and 'you gotta see this!' pulled the others to his side.

They watched at toys that floated and sank were tossed about. There were balls, much like the sponge, but they sprayed water as they were thrown and could soak others at the pass completed.

Dark Ace conceded that maybe it was excess water slung off by the speed the ball was thrown at.

Finn rolled his eyes and set the toy aside.

Finn moaned as he pushed another one into him. "Ah, please…" Dark Ace flushed. He really needed to find where the thoughts were coming from and destroy it. He shook his head hard. So hard he actually made himself dizzy and had to sit down.

Finn gave him a questioning look, but Dark Ace waved it off. He was going to be fine. Finn held up a torpedo.

He was so screwed.

Cyclonis laughed internally. They weren't even in the water yet and her plan was working. Finn was paying attention to Dark Ace!

Now, to convince Dark Ace that he still had it in him….

"Oh, there is something that Dark Ace used to do when we were kids that was so much fun. He would stand in the pool and throw me into a deeper section. It was amazing. Think we can try that?"

"Why not have the Wallop throw you?"

"He's too strong." Piper and Cyclonis chorused. "Ah, sorry, you go first."

"The last time Junko threw Finn, he nearly served him to a man-eating plant in the Black Gorge." Piper explained.

"It would be safer if you threw us."

No one noticed the diving board morph out of the ground over the pool.

Dark Ace sighed, and conceded. He had the sneaky suspicion that Master Cyclonis was planning something, but he wasn't certain what.

A timer went off. "Yes! The swimsuits are dry! We can get dressed and put on the sun tan lotion and be ready to swim by the time we can swim!"

Finn tore off for the dryer.

Cyclonis grinned. Piper felt the 'eerie' vibe from her friend and turned to ask Cyclonis what she has done this time.

Cyclonis widened her eyes and batted them. "I was afraid that the colors from Finn's Hawaiian trunks would bleed into my purple one piece, so I didn't dry his. I dried the g-string bikini for him."

Piper gapped at her.

"I hope he doesn't mind. Crusty dried shorts are so not comfortable to wear instead." Piper grabbed Cyclonis' arm and dragged her to get their suits and duck when Finn realized that his eye-searing colored shorts were gone.

"Are you trying to get Finn jumped?" She hissed.

"Am I that obvious?"

"Not to the guys, no." Piper worried her lip.

"Is there something wrong, Piper? Don't you think that they deserve a chance? There's no telling how long we'll be here." Cyclonis changed her statement part-way through form 'think they would be cute together' to what she had said.

If it sounded like she was rigging them together to amuse herself, Piper would put her foot down and that would be the end of that plan.

Just like all of her other plans were ruined by the Storm Hawks.

Her first plan was coincidence that Carver would be captured by the Storm Hawks. And then without even trying, they were wrecking the rest of her plans! The only time they pre-meditated an attack was when Starling was with them!

Like luck had nothing to do with it.

Cyclonis nearly started sulking from her thoughts but caught herself in time- wouldn't want Piper thinking that she had jumped the gun and assumed what Piper would choose and was getting upset before Piper had told her- yes or no.

Piper continued to mull over the predicament. Finn was obviously helping Cyclonis seduce someone of her choosing, after all, the napkins were hidden by him when the Bar-B-Q started.

He could have handed her one instead of the licking motion.

While Piper mulled, Cyclonis reflected. Wasn't there something about Carver Dark Ace hadn't liked, beyond the fact that one pupil was bigger than the other?

Oh, yeah. When Carver had hollered, Dark Ace had stiffened, ever so slightly. He hadn't flinched.

Cyclonis had questioned him later about it, and Dark Ace had responded that it sounded like _his_. The first Sky Knight he murdered. Killed. Slew.

Cyclonis had refrained from hugging him. He was loyal to her. How dare he have even a moment of weakness where he contemplated what it would have been like to have not betrayed the Storm Hawks-

"I had chills reliving the moment." Dark Ace had grinned at her, a feral one.

Oh. Ooooh. He wasn't regretting. He was relishing. Master Cyclonis chided herself for having so little faith in the face of Dark Ace remembering.

He would never betray her.

Just as she would never abandon him.

"Okay, you have yourself a deal. I'll help get them together." Piper stuck her hand out. Cyclonis shook her hand.

She grinned.

The pool was going to see more than one kind of game, soon.

* * *

To be continued….

Next chapter- the pool games!

A/N: I hinted pretty heavily that the characters are in my head. That's why they sometimes get OOC, like when Dark Ace started ogling Finn. They don't realize that they are there most likely because I am or am not watching the SH episodes.

It explains the stage setting, too. Until there's a season three and their characters progress, they're kind of stuck in this dimension.

Of course, should season three ever start, you know what that means- more hiccups!

Originally I was going to end the entire Story with them realizing that they are in a place between worlds until their own story is continued, but then I realized if I did that, the story would be over in the next three chapters, because I'm running out of hiccups!

Hiccup!

Or not.

The Alien of Pluto- Well, I dunno if it's really that important, but its a mess up...In the second part of the first episode/ second episode, when the Dark Ace knocks Aerrow out and he skids across the floor, his shoulder armour-guard-thing is actually through his shoulder. -

That is the only hiccup I have besides a few floating in my head. So please review and keep this fanfic from grinding to a slow and painful halt!

Random Voice in my head- No it wouldn't. You have way too many ideas, such as laser tag, angst, developing romance, all floating in your head.

Me- That's filler stuff! I want to use hiccups!

RVIMH- The 'filler stuff' is an awesome way to introduce hiccups as a side note or directly talked about.

Me-…fine….

Geez, nineteen and a half pages long…


	7. Chapter 7

Bless you Random Weirdo!

(Stops and thinks about how that sounded.) Okay, whoever Random Weirdo is dropped the review about deviantart having bloopers and the like that I can use for the story. So bless you and thank you!

And bless you YamiPluto! I totally missed that in Velocity! But it's okay to think about them like frogs. I was trying to describe SH to a family member and there was no access to a computer, so I described Stork as…. 'a sexy frog.' She gave me the look of 'what?' But she's watching the series now!

I do not own Storm Hawks!

On with the Story!

The pool was cold. Okay, the pool water was cold, but then again, it wasn't freezing, and rather tepid from the above lights.

Piper and Cyclonis discussed how to implant heaters into the pool before Aerrow rolled his eyes and yelled "Cannonball!" He ran and leapt into the six foot deep end.

Piper and Cyclonis were drenched.

"Look you two, work time is over. Just relax for now. You don't hear anyone complaining, do you?"

Seeming to ignore Aerrow, Piper and Cyclonis swam to the side and hauled themselves out.

"Uh, Piper? Cyclonis?"

"Cannonball!" Piper and Cyclonis ran and jumped on Aerrow's either sides and drenched him twice in retaliation.

Dark Ace sighed. He was not getting into the water until the Storm Hawks had calmed down. He was looking forward to being able to swim laps the length of the pool. It was nowhere near standard lengths, but he supposed it was the best.

Across the pool, Stork shuddered.

"I can't believe that they did that."

"What? Cannonballs? Those are fun to do, Stork." Finn corrected from beside him. He was huffing and puffing an inflatable arm floatation device for Junko. His weight might cause problems, so Junko was taking an insurance against drowning.

"No. Increasing the chance of an ear infection."

Finn winced. "Those hurt really bad."

Stork nodded. "Not to mention that they can be fatal."

"Whoa, wait. I thought ear infections were treatable? You just needed a solution that would get the water to flow out. Then you heal up."

"Ooho, not always. Some people are susceptible to ear infections. They can die from it."

Finn looked uncomfortable. Stork raised an eyebrow.

"I, uhm, had one as a child. Do you think…?"

"Uhm, no. I don't think you're susceptible." Stork walked off to inflate his ducky float, and hopped into the pool. Finn returned to huffing and puffing. Soon, Junko was in the water as well.

Cyclonis and Piper were comparing swimming techniques, and Aerrow was coaxing Dark Ace into the chaos of the pool.

So far, he was having little luck.

"I'm not interested in horseplay, Storm boy. I'm waiting for you lot to calm down so I can have some laps in peace. The training exercises have started to bore me." With that, Dark Ace stretched out on the lawn chair.

"Yo Dark Ace, you want to borrow my sun glasses?" Finn called from where he was about to jump in.

Dark Ace sighed and half sat up, to tell Finn that no, he wouldn't need the sunglasses. Finn's body in a g-string bikini was all he saw for a long while.

Finn waved.

"Uh, Dark Ace? Yes or no?"

"Yes?"

"Okay, I'll get them." Finn ran off to get his favorite sun glasses. So what if they were the wrong style for Dark Ace? The guy needed to lighten up for a few hours.

Dark Ace stared after Finn.

"How can he wear that?"

"You can thank Cyclonis for 'that' later. Finn's running his shorts through the dryer now. Think it'll be safe for you to join once he's dressed better?"

Dark Ace nodded dumbly.

"And do yourself a favor- shut your mouth before he comes back."

Dark Ace made to close his mouth, realized he hadn't been starring open mouthed at Finn, and glowered at Aerrow.

Aerrow laughed, and submerged, kicking off from the wall to go play with Piper and Cyclonis.

Dark Ace sighed and made sure that he was lying on his front when Finn came to give him the glasses.

Finn turned and dove from a standing position into the pool.

Dark Ace immediately tried thinking of Snipe in a corset.

It worked somewhat.

The overhead lights were making Storks hair go from black to green in the light. He flicked them out of the way, annoyed.

"Oh, I know- let's play Categories. Uhm, I'll go first, and let's limit the play area to the five feet- six feet section."

Piper then swam to the opposite wall.

"Could someone please explain the game to me?" Cyclonis asked.

"It's easy. Piper faces away from us, and can't turn around unless she hears a noise." Finn started.

"She's only allowed to turn around three times, and then her turn is over." Aerrow continued.

"That's because it's our job to cross over as quietly as possible if she names what we are thinking. She picks a category, say color, and we yell 'got it' when we know what our color is." Stork explained.

"Then she starts guessing. And if she turns around and sees you crossing, then everyone has to cross. If she tags you last, you're the next person." Junko finished.

"Yeah, you swim to the opposite side and choose your category. Lather, rinse, repeat." Finn added.

Cyclonis nodded, and then swam to the opposite wall. Piper climbed out. "Okay, the category is crystals."

Soon, a chorus of 'got it!' reached her ears.

Piper began to call out names. "Leecher, solar, graviton, power, Firebolt, Icey!"

Silence.

"Oblivion, slimer, Levitation!"

A ripple.

"Cheese stone!"

Piper whipped around. "Bwah! I was touching the wall!" Finn gasped. He had made the breadth of the pool in two breathes.

Piper sighed and turned around again. She continued to call out names, until she heard a 'sorry' and whipped around. She jumped in.

* * *

Dark Ace surveyed the chaos that was the Category game.

Apparently, Piper had dived in and immediately ran into Cyclonis, who, tagged, continued onto the wall to Finn. Piper than tagged Junko, somersaulted and gotten Stork, and had to chase down Aerrow last.

The red head turned to the wall he had just pushed off from and climbed out.

Radarr chirped from pool's edge. He didn't like taking baths; he wasn't going to get in. Thankfully, there other things to keep him occupied. Like watching how the light changed Dark Ace's hair from a black to seemingly having highlights of green in it.

"Category is Atmosian animals!"

"Got it!"

"Sky sharks! Leviathan! Fire Scorpions! Lava Worms!"

One by one, the Storm Hawks and Cyclonis all quietly slipped under and swam to the other side.

Aerrow kept calling out names.

"Uh, um….sky sharks?"

"Dude that was the first thing you said." Finn stated from underneath him. Aerrow turned around. Everyone playing was on his side of the pool.

With a sigh, Aerrow walked around to the other side.

Dark Ace refrained from snickering.

* * *

The game went on until everyone had gone several times. Then they all piled out to rest. Dark Ace slipped in and swam the width of the pool until the children were ready to go back in. Aerrow gave Cyclonis an amused glance when Finn asked Piper how the Dark Ace was gliding so far into his strokes.

Piper then had to explain to Finn that there was an advanced move where a swimmer gauged the distance to a wall, somersaulted, and pushed off into the next lap.

"Doesn't the water go up your nose?"

"It can. That why some people blow air out of their nose while they do the maneuver or plug their noses."

Finn winced.

* * *

The next few games were shark and minnows, and then Marco Polo.

When Dark Ace noticed how orderly Marco Polo was, he joined in.

"Fish out of water?" He called out.

"Ack!" Came Finn's voice from a spot above him. The Cannonball crashed right beside him. Dark Ace grinned.

Finn came up, spluttering and coughing. Dark Ace opened his eyes. "Are you?"

"Swallowed some." Finn wheezed. Knowing that trying to breath and water pressing on you didn't mix; Dark Ace grabbed Finn and hauled him to the edge. Finn nodded his head in thanks and wheezed for a few minutes.

"I suggest we find a new way to amuse ourselves for now." Dark Ace called out. The others agreed, and fetched the toys, especially the beach balls.

Dark Ace patted Finn's back. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Stork rolled his eyes. Everyone was infected. Everyone! They were behaving strangely. Their behavior was always just a little off.

Maybe it came from being grounded for so long, unable to fly?

"Stork? Is everything okay?"

Stork glanced up at Aerrow. "I'm worried that this place has a strange affect on all of us. I mean, banding together for survival I understand, but the conditions aren't exactly…horrendous."

Aerrow shrugged. "We are still trapped."

Stork nodded. "And each day, we are less inclined to break out. Our every need has been catered to. Without the war, we are even getting friendly to those who once tried to kill and or enslave us."

Stork shuddered.

Aerrow flushed. "Okay, so everyone's starting to act their age. Maybe you can lead an expedition into the hall way Junko found later?"

Stork nodded.

Aerrow left him to his gloomy thoughts.

"At least in the Black Gorge, we had a plan of how to escape. There are no maps here."

* * *

Junko settled into the snacks. There was flavored water, whatever that was, but Piper and Cyclonis immediately hogged the White Grape and Black Cherry ones.

They giggled and lounged about, talking about all the work that they would be doing if they weren't here.

"Ah, getting the boys to clean up after themselves and be clean in general is a pain." Piper put in.

"I just have people enforce strict punishments and surprise inspections. It isn't squeaky clean, but I figured some semblance of order was better than a trash heap." Cyclonis rebutted.

Piper sighed and stretched out.

"Say, Piper."

"Mhmm?"

"Have you ever defeated the Dark Ace?"

"Oh, yes I did. We were on Terra Sahaar, and I blasted him out of the sky with the contraption Cavalry that Stork built."

"Ah, I thought the marksman had nailed me. You win, Master Cyclonis. Piper would be a fine addition." Dark Ace walked by and helped himself to a sandwich and a bottle of water.

"We had a bet going on about who had bested him. I needed some humor after he came in with the latest report on failure." Cyclonis explained.

"Pretty dark humor." Piper commented.

"Well, I bet his vacation time, but there's nothing to set him to work doing."

"He could teach Finn that kick off he was doing earlier." Piper suggested.

"Woohoo! Alright! My shorts have finally dried! I don't need these anymore!" Cyclonis glanced over to Finn, who was happily jumping around in his swim trunks.

"You know, for saying I have dark humor, you have an evil sense of reward."

Piper grinned.

"Oh, Dark Ace. I decided that instead of your vacation time, you should teach Finn how to swim."

Junko gasped in horror.

"That's pure evil! He won't make it!"

Aerrow attempted to soothe Junko. "Finn will be okay. He's pulled through tougher scraps."

"Not evil for Finn." Stork corrected. "Evil for Dark Ace."

Aerrow looked confused for a moment. Then his face split into a cocky grin. "He's never tried to get Finn to do what he wants before."

"Oooh yeah." Stork mirrored with an evil grin.

Dark Ace stoutly ignored them, and masking his apprehension, went to collect the blond marksman.

* * *

Let there be nothing said of the next two hours he spent teaching Finn while everyone watched, laughed, and bet on how long he would last.

He was totally going to get even with all of them.

Well, except maybe Master Cyclonis.

* * *

"That was awesome! I thought I was a good swimmer before, but now I'm gonna be even greater!"

Finn's exuberance infected the group. They decided on racing later, to see who could put forth the best record.

"Yay." Dark Ace commented, his face a straight mask. He was never going to call the marksman an idiot ever again.

He was on the epic level of an imbecile. How he had managed to hit his head repeatedly against the wall without injuring himself was starting to give Dark Ace a headache. He made a straight line for his lawn chair, pulled a towel over himself, and flopped down.

He was out like a light.

* * *

Dark Ace woke up hours later to someone screaming.

He leapt from the lawn chair, knocking it over, and raced to the edge of the pool. The Storm Hawks and Master Cyclonis stared at him.

He stared back.

"Alright. Who screamed?"

They kept staring.

"What?"

"You have lines on your chest from sleeping on the lawn chair." Stork pointed out. Now that he mentioned it, his chest did smart from being wet and coming into contact with the lawn chair.

Ignoring the pain, and the starring, Dark Ace proceeded to stare down the adolescences. Finally, Junko caved.

"We were dunking each other and Stork got Finn real good. So Finn went to get him, finally caught him, and I think he accidentally tickled Stork."

"…..Merbs scream when they get tickled."

"Apparently."

Dark Ace raised an eyebrow. "Fine." With that, he waded into the pool.

"What are the rules for dunking?" He asked once he was near the group. Well, most people would mistake it for demanding, but Dark Ace was a little grumpy at his nap being interrupted.

"No more than two people can dunk the same person at one time. You have to let go after ten seconds, but that's the final limit, it's usually get their head under water and let go."

"It's like wrestling." Aerrow clarified from Junko's explanation. Dark Ace smoothed his greener than black hair back.

"Alright. A free for all?"

"Yep." Finn commented.

Dark Ace grinned evilly.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, he was still grinning. Only Aerrow, Master Cyclonis, and Piper had managed to dunk him. But that was only once each.

He had gotten everyone several times.

Ah, it felt good to be feared again.

* * *

Finn swam around, kicking his legs not in a scissor motion, but by bringing the feet together and then kicking outwards before pulling them back in.

He was swimming like a frog.

"What are you doing?"

"I did this once after my Skimmer got destroyed, and what do you know, it works in the water!" Finn exclaimed.

Then he submerged. Dark Ace watched as Finn swam under Piper and Cyclonis who were resting on floatation devices that looked like single cots. He swam around Junko.

He surfaced quietly, took a breath, and swam around Stork. He picked up torpedoes from the bottom of the pool and pelted them at the Merb, just close enough that Stork realized that there was something near him.

He freaked out.

Once he realized that Finn had quietly swum away, Stork stopped hyper ventilating and turned to dive and collect the torpedoes.

Oh, this meant war.

Then Aerrow had stood in the five foot section and spread his legs. Finn went through and surfaced behind him.

"Well?"

"Nine out of ten. I felt the water move before you breached."

"Aw, man."

"My turn." Aerrow waded forward, and then dove under.

They continued like that for a while. Just when Dark ace was contemplating joining them, Finn stuck his head in the water and pulled a face.

Aerrow, who was swimming with his face to the surface, grabbed the back of Finn's legs and pulled him under.

It quickly turned into a wrestling match. Piper, Cyclonis, and Dark Ace watched as Aerrow and Finn writhed and neither succeeded in throwing the other.

Finn used the water to his advantage, stopping Aerrow from getting a firm grip.

Aerrow used his extra height to keep Finn from dunking him with a solid lower center of gravity. Finally, Finn leaned forward, and gasped "Truce?"

"Truce."

They let go of each other. Piper and Cyclonis' eyes were half lidded and staring at Aerrow. Dark Ace slid into the water and hoped no one came near him.

A/N: Yay, I got to torture the Dark Ace some more! There might still be playtime in the next chapter, but I think it's time for the Storm Hawks to try and break free….not that they know they won't succeed.

Evil grin.

On another note, after Stork walked off, I nearly wrote the line 'Finn returned to blowing….' and decided not to.


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Storm Hawks! I have no idea what to do for hiccups! This is primarily being written for enjoyment and TO TELL YOU THAT MINN-MAIGI HAS POSTED THE DOODLES!

Go see 'em. I love the 'Disobey and Die' one.

On with the Story!

Lights, Camera, Hiccup! Chapter 8

Stork surveyed the group. After swimming yesterday, they had finally called it a night and hit the showers.

In Finn's case, he literally hit the shower after slipping on a piece of soap. He still had a slight bump on his head, but he reassured everyone that his brain was not leaking out of his skull.

Junko absolutely refused to be out of Finn's sight, and made sure that Finn was lying down as much as possible.

To Finn's credit, he hadn't abused the power.

The rest of them were coming with Stork on the expedition to the hallway. Cyclonis constructed staffs for herself and Piper. Aerrow gripped one dagger in his hand at all time. He had decided that his armor couldn't disappear if he was somehow conscious of it at all time.

Dark Ace just rolled his eyes and checked his sword for any rust.

Stork managed to dress himself in his usual gear, except that the floatation device was blue this time.

Radarr came out of nowhere with a few chicken feathers attached to him. He chirruped and hopped onto Aerrow's shoulders.

Stork marched up and down the line.

"Okay, before we go to what is most likely our imminent doom, we might as well be prepared. I presume you all know how to do Merbian Crazy Faces?" The Storm Hawks nodded.

Dark Ace glanced at Master Cyclonis. They shook their heads.

"Make a crazy face." Stork deadpanned.

Master Cyclonis and Dark Ace looked at him blankly.

"A crazy face, not a blank stare."

They glared at him. Stork recoiled. "Or sneer. That works."

Aerrow rolled his eyes.

"Okay, go!" Stork yelled.

Aerrow, Piper, and Radarr pulled their usual faces and cleared the test.

Cyclonis fell over laughing.

"That'll do." Stork commented, before turning to Dark Ace.

"Meep!" Stork ran and hid behind Aerrow. "That was good."

Dark Ace grinned, and turned to face the only known way out.

"Aren't you going to lead?"

Stork nodded and headed off. Piper helped Cyclonis up, and they followed. Radarr padded after them.

Aerrow dropped back.

"What did you do?"

"I widened my eyes and used my neck to put my head forward. Like this." Aerrow stoically held through the initial shock.

That was creepy.

* * *

Once through the door, the group linked themselves together with some rope. Then they set off.

The ground was even and level. They went about the length of the Condor's runway before the light from the door faded.

Then they were walking through misty grey fog. Then they were back at the door.

"Okay, that made no sense." Piper voiced. "We just left from here."

Cyclonis nodded. "Besides, we didn't even cross an area the size of the room, so we couldn't have gone in a circle."

"Is it just me, or has all logic abandoned this place?" Aerrow muttered to Stork. Dark Ace snorted from where he brought up the rear.

"It's obvious that perhaps the fog is affecting us? Let's just keep going until we find the hallway. Junko was gone for nearly an hour."

Stork cleared his throat. "Based on Dark Ace's suggestion, let's keep moving."

They headed into the fog again.

They ended up at the door again.

They repeated the movements until Piper asked if perhaps they should get some supplies from Junko and Finn before they continued on.

Of course, she only asked because after ending up where you started twenty-odd times gets a little old, and everyone else was too stubborn to quit.

Listening to her rational explanation, Stork opened the door to ask Junko for some food. And promptly slammed the door shut.

"What? Is Finn doing Air Guitar again?" Piper jokingly teased.

Stork was white.

"Stork? Everything okay?" Aerrow asked.

"I saw…me."

Cyclonis made an exaggerated noise. "It's obvious that Finn's been alone for so long, that he put a mirror in front of the door just to mess with us."

"Well, that is really mean." Dark Ace commented.

"It's Finn." Piper shrugged. "He does mean, but he doesn't do malicious. He actually put a Dark Ace silhouette against the Condor one time, and Aerrow attacked it with a yell."

Aerrow flushed.

"Good instincts." Dark Ace commended him.

Stork continued to take deep breaths, before he opened the door again.

Everyone felt the good-feeling of 'Finn's just pulling another prank' evaporate when Starling opened the door.

"Oh, thank God you made it back!"

"Starling?"

"Oh. Drat." Starling bit her lip.

"Well, come on in. I'll try to explain it a bit better."

"What is going on?" Piper asked as they wandered into the room. It was less of a stage and more of a house floor.

"Well, the fastest way to say this is that we're shades."

"We're what?"

"In roughly four minutes, there's going to be a live broadcast of us to a world that links all the 'minds' together. We'll be out of here- and then we'll be back."

"Wait, so we're stuck?" Piper exclaimed, aghast.

"Technically no." Starling announced. "We can leave, just not through that door. And we always return."

"You keep saying 'we'." Dark Ace noted. Starling clapped a hand over her mouth.

"It's okay, Starling. They already saw Stork." Aerrow stepped out of one of the side rooms.

Aerrow standing next to Cyclonis and Piper starred.

"Looks like your group is missing Finn and Junko too." Aerrow number two noticed.

"No! We left them back at the stage." Piper explained.

"Leave. Now." Aerrow hurried over to them. "What? Why?" Piper asked.

"There's no time. If you don't make it back before the airing, Finn will disappear." Starling shoved them out of the door. "Head straight for the only open door. Run!"

The Storm Hawks ran. Cyclonis followed. Dark Ace reached over and scratched the floor in front of the door.

"This isn't over."

Then he hurtled after the others.

* * *

They fell through the open door, which slammed itself close right on Dark Ace's butt. He yelped, but to his credit, didn't drop Master Cyclonis, who had sprained an ankle.

Finn sat up from the couch. "You guys okay? You've been gone for like, hours."

Junko piped up from where he was cleaning the pool filter. "At the last count, Finn you said they had been gone for four hours, twenty nine minutes and four seconds. That was three minutes ago."

"Ahaha, yeah." Finn rubbed the back of his head.

"So did you guys find anything?" He turned wide, questing blue eyes to them.

* * *

Starling sighed and shook her head, slamming the door shut with the door's own motion. She was going to miss them. Last time they were able to stay for tea and cookies.

And then they would leave and forget. The Shade drifted over to where the others were.

"Well, they made it."

Aerrow nodded, and hugged Piper closer to himself. Stork attempted to look cheerful, before he wandered off to cry in what used to be Finn's room.

Junko had wandered into the fog to find him, and neither had returned.

* * *

The Storm Hawks looked at each other. They remembered being in a hurry to get back, but…

"No. We never found the hallway." Dark Ace set Master Cyclonis on the opposite couch and went to get her some ice for the swelling.

Piper sat on the floor and Aerrow dragged a chair over for her to elevate her foot on.

"I only remember wandering through the fog." She confessed.

"You wandered. I got carried like a sack of potatoes." Cyclonis declared.

"Forgive me, Master. I was running for speed, not grace. If it makes you feel any better, I carried you like a sack of rare crystals, not a vegetable."

"I thought potatoes were a starch." Finn whispered very loudly to Aerrow.

Dark Ace flushed. He brought a towel and ice in a bag over to Cyclonis, and set to getting her comfortable off her feet.

Piper sighed and laid back, her shoulders digging into the seat of the couch. Aerrow puzzled over their sudden retreat. Stork pulled Junko to the side, to compare why he found a hallway and they never saw one.

Finn groaned and lay back down. His head was killing him. He thought it was just a small bump.

Noticing his discomfort, Dark Ace came over and pecked him on the forehead.

Everyone froze.

"What? I used to kiss Cyclonis' booboos away when she got hurt."

Dead silence. Then "Thank you for the sentiment, but please don't do that ever again." Finn requested.

The other Storm Hawks were howling with laughter.

"I'm sorry." Piper heaved through rolling on the floor. "I know I shouldn't find it funny, but Dark Ace kissing a scrapped knee…heeheeheee." She rolled again and started slamming her fist on the ground.

The escape into the fog was soon forgotten as the group settled in to talk about what to do with two of their members off their feet.

Cyclonis suggested pedicures.

This time, Stork wasn't able to escape. Only Radarr vanished before the girls got into full planning mode, and when Finn is bored…

He'll do anything for some amusement.

* * *

A/N: Okay, I never got around to any hiccups that are floating in my head….except maybe the hiccup on how the story was written. (and is based in my mind)

But I did have it from a valid source that in America, they are airing the SH season again, but I don't get the Disney channel, so I can't watch! (curses) Instead, I'm typing this chapter up.

I'll take Random Weirdo's suggestion and get a chapter nine up with some hiccups.


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own Storm Hawks!

On with the Story!

Starling sighed, and leaned back. Despite the sorrow, she had to admit that this place, the 'mind' was actually rather fine. She also held comfort in being a shade, a product of the mind on what she was outside of here.

As a shade, she was a mixture of reality and fantasy. She sipped the tea that Stork had made, and made and face. Most likely the Merb had put something in there to ward off diseases of the mind.

* * *

Back with the regular group, Finn was still recovering from his head injury, and Cyclonis was demanding someone make her some crutches so she could get off the *&$-couch.

Dark Ace reeled at her language.

"Master Cyclonis!"

"What?"

"Such language is unbecoming! Besides, Stork is nearly done with the crutches, and Piper is making a wheelchair with Junko. Be patient just a bit longer."

Cyclonis grumbled but abated her demands.

Finn covered his lower face with a hand.

"What is so funny?" Cyclonis glowered at him.

"Nothing. I just figured after Aerrow, you would be the last person to say *&$."

Cyclonis rolled her eyes.

* * *

Piper wriggled her recently pedicure feet. There was nothing like losing three inches of dead skin to make everything feel soft- and tender.

Piper sucked in a breath and gingerly stepped out of Junko's way. Getting her foot stepped on by the Wallop when she was wearing shoes hurt bad enough. She was not putting her feet anywhere near the Wallop's without shoes and after a pedicure.

They all looked out for the horns on Junko's feet after that.

The wheelchair was taken for a spin by Aerrow once they were finished. A few adjustments, and in a few minutes Cyclonis thanked them for getting her off the couch.

"Where's Dark Ace?" she asked.

Stork hooked a thumb in the direction of the men's room.

"He's scouring his ears for some reason. He said it wasn't contagious and for me to back off. Hmph." Stork returned to carving out the crutches and Cyclonis was very glad for the wheelchair.

No telling what sort of adjustments the Merb was making to the simple frames. They looked like they would support her weight and nothing more.

Cyclonis shuddered and wheeled herself over to the pool.

"I've been thinking while I've been out on the couch. What exactly was Finn trying to say when he was in the ring?"

"Oh! Cyclonia has bad news. You'd think that would be easy for him to remember." Piper rolled her eyes.

Cyclonis sighed. "Apparently not. I asked him last night, and he insulted far more than my hygiene and shoe collection."

"Huh. I wonder why he just can't remember." Aerrow bit his lip, and looked downcast.

"DUDE! It's 'cause we're always defeating her top three commander. Of course she's gonna have bad news!" Finn giggles, then moaned.

"I need to stop trying to get up."

His hand touched his head, and he hissed. The bump just wasn't going away. A bag of ice landed on his head.

Dark Ace walked on pass him, tissue in his ears. There was blood on them.

Cyclonis sent a sharp look at Stork.

Stork put his hands up in his own defense. "I wasn't about to stop him."

"Hmmm? Oh, the blood isn't from the ear. I was staring at the mirror after washing my ears out and noticed that I needed to shave. I thought I put a clean tissue in my ears to soak up any lasting water so I could encourage- ah, not an ear infection."

"Those things are the worst pain that could ever be inflicted on a person." Stork proclaimed from where he was setting the crutches.

Dark Ace snorted. "No it isn't. Getting a toe nail pulled because there's fungus growing underneath it is far more painful. Especially when it's then chemically treated so the nail won't grow back. Try not getting your foot stepped on, only to drop a crate of crystals on it. That is sheer agony."

Cyclonis discreetly got Aerrow's, Piper's, and Junko's attention and wheeled herself away from the two men. Radarr was waiting for them at the lunch table.

"What's the matter?" Piper asked.

"They'll be arguing the most painful malady for awhile. We might want to find a way to entertain ourselves. I'm off of this foot for the next two weeks."

Aerrow turned to Radarr.

"We got any of those cards left?"

Radarr chirped and ran off.

"Steam from the Condor hurts more than that!" Stork's voice drifted over to them.

Dark Ace's low voice presented a new malady, one which Stork admitted to being bad, before coming up with an even worse disease.

Finn moaned on the couch.

"Is everyone ignoring me?"

* * *

Stork and Dark Ace had called a truce as to the worst disease and pain in all of Atmos by the next morning. Cyclonis was 'Queen of Poker' and when Dark Ace sent Aerrow a glare, Piper explained that when they played strip poker, he could referee.

Aerrow fainted.

"Or maybe we could just skip strip poker altogether." Piper amended.

She dragged Aerrow over to the couch, where Finn was snoring away. She propped him up, and headed back to the group.

"Okay, who wants to give Finn a sponge bath when he wakes up?"

Dark Ace raised his hand. Piper ignored him.

"Junko? Are you doing anything later?"

"Huh? I have to maintain the pool. I think Stork messed with the filters to increase their efficiency, but forgot to put it back in correctly, so it isn't doing its job at all."

Stork gasped, screamed, clamped a hand over his mouth, and ran for his disinfectant spray. Cyclonis began to wheel her way out of the incoming stampede of Stork cleaners.

"I am hiding until dinner from the incoming fiasco. Dark Ace can bathe Finn. Piper, go ahead and help get him upstairs. I'm going to see about something you and I can do once everyone else is busy."

"Ooooh, we could do a movie." Piper piped up from the couch.

"And plan how to do Finn's hair." Cyclonis called back.

Piper grinned and helped Dark Ace get Finn onto the stretcher.

* * *

The bath went with a lot loss splashing and emotion keying. Finn was docile and helped washing, but he couldn't move too much without the whole room spinning.

Dark Ace had to set him on the rim with a towel (thank Atmos for corners big enough to set people on) and began to towel him dry.

"Hey, Dark Ace? I've been thinking…Stork doesn't like being touched, right? He totally freaks out if you hug him. What about you? You just never give off the friendly vibe, and you aren't obsessively paranoid."

Without looking up from toweling the injured teen, Dark Ace loudly announced, "That's because I don't do glomps."

"What are glomps?"

"Flying hugs."

Finn tilted his head to the side. "No. I will not demonstrate them. Now, once you're dressed, I'm going to carry you back to the couch."

Finn nodded, and set about wriggling into his clothes while Dark Ace stepped behind a screen to give him some privacy.

He also used the moment to shiver in the memory of the person who ran up, jumped, and grabbed him without warning when. They called glomps affectionate means of endearment.

Dark Ace thought they were horrible measures of torture.

"Okay, I'm ready." Finn called out.

Composing himself, Dark Ace walked out from behind the screen and picked up the slim sharp shooter.

Master Cyclonis had more curves than he did, and she was a petite woman.

As he carried Finn back down the stairs, he grumbled, "Do you do anything in the way of exercising? You barely have any muscles."

"I surf. Either in the water, air, or the ground, although, I'm still trying to figure why Raptor wanted my Surfboard when he went to the almost newly created Terra Blizarrus. I thought deserts didn't have water?"

"They don't. He probably brought it along to amuse himself in other regards." Dark Ace settled Finn on the couch, then left to fetch him an ice pack. The swelling still had yet to go down, yet Dark Ace was positive that there were no occlusion fractures on the marksman.

As he returned to with the ice pack, he overheard the most peculiar conversation. He got Finn's attention and pointed him in the direction of the argument. Finn accepted the ice pack and gave Dark Ace the hot chocolate that had been left beside the couch with DA written into the side.

"Technically, I'm older than you." Cyclonis smirked at Aerrow.

Aerrow held his hand up to his head, and then dropped it to be level with Cyclonis' head. Dark Ace chocked on his hot chocolate. He began to snort off to the side. He knew laughing at Cyclonis was bad and wrong, and that he would be severely punished later, but the moment was just too funny.

Cyclonis glared at Aerrow.

"I'm still older." She hissed, and then stalked off, swaying her hips as she went.

Aerrow nodded. "Yeah, you are older. But Finn's got a sassier walk than you do."

There was a pause.

"Dude!"

Everyone bent over in laughter at Finn's outburst. Dark Ace lost it, and his beverage came out his nose. Piper made an 'ewww!' face and fetched him some napkins. Finn continued to glare at Aerrow, who shrugged.

Cyclonis looked horrified, and Junko wasn't helping.

"Yeah, he really does stick out one side of his hip more than the other."

"Sorta like this." Stork mimicked, walking by. He did a fairly good impersonation before a pillow sailed out and landed on his chest.

"Just because I'm injured and can't aim doesn't mean I still can't hit you. Chica cha." Finn glowered at them.

"It's okay, buddy. We didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Junko attempted to soothe Finn's hurt expression from his face.

"If it helps any, Stork still screams like a girl."

"Hey! I do not!" Dark Ace tapped Stork on the shoulder opposite he was standing at. Stork turned to look at the shoulder.

"EEEEEK! Invisible vampires with jet packs! AAUUUGH!" Stork ran around to find his repellant.

"Dude, how did you do that? You were just standing here next to me, and Stork was nearly at the side of the pool!"

"Well, I've done it before, remember? I punched out Harrier's light-weight face and made it back to my Skimmer at the end of the landing strip."

Dark Ace stretched, and then reflected, "It's similar to Aerrow suddenly being flip side of where he was, except that I don't travel back to my previous spot."

"Huh." Finn was sufficiently distracted from being called sassy.

"Oh, yeah. What was the fight over, you two?" Finn turned his attention back to Aerrow and Cyclonis.

Aerrow, Cyclonis, and Piper all had their backs to the other and had their arms crossed.

"It was nothing." They all retorted.

"Really? Because when I left you two were going to do a movie and Aerrow was out cold." Dark Ace cajoled them.

Sometimes being the only adult in the group meant that he had to be the only counselor to a bunch of children who were either his superior or tried to kill him or were sassy.

"We couldn't agree on a movie, so we decided to do an action/romance, though I still don't understand why you want romance in a movie, Cyclonis. It's disgusting and overdone."

"So I suggested that they do two separate movies, and the both blew up at me."

"And how many times do I have to say, what's wrong with romance? You keep denouncing it, but you won't give me any valid reasons. Is it because you only know about the sickly sweet stuff they sell pre-packaged in stores and expect you to keep in with the social norms?"

Piper turned around. "Okay, Cyclonis, what do you know of love?" She was border-line confrontational.

"Dark Ace bringing me a new chocker he saw in the store and thought I would like. It wasn't my birthday, or a holiday, or even for a raise. He just thought 'She'll like this' and got it for me without the added frou-fra."

"Oh." Piper bit her lip. "Sorry. I just get so sick of people who expect love to just show up and take off. It makes me…"

"Wanna puke?" Aerrow offered. "Yeah, I get that feeling. A hell of a lot of people think one-night stands are going to turn into a relationship of fifty years and going strong. Hello, you don't even know what you really want. You can't just walk into life and expect it to take care of you. You have to build the relationship."

"Exactly!" Cyclonis exclaimed. "I hate it when people rush things. I always build a bridge and test it before I cross over. A lot of times, that bridge gets burnt while it gets built."

"Yeah," nodded Piper. "You think you know something, or someone, but the instant they get put to the test, it crumbles, and you find out it wasn't the match you were looking for." Piper was downcast from the fire-spitting woman a few moments ago.

"I know what that's like. You head into a relationship looking for love, but all they want is someone with money and a reputation whose too goody two shoes to realize that they're being used."

"That love sucks." Cyclonis declared.  
"Totally." Agreed Piper.

"I couldn't put it better myself." Aerrow agreed.

"So, who wants to make a movie?" The girls and Aerrow darted off to get started.

Finn looked at Dark Ace. "I am totally going to skip out on account of injury. Tell me how it was, would you?"

Dark Ace rolled his eyes.

Teenagers and their hormones.

* * *

A/N: I am alive! And working on this 45-page story that is eating up my free time. Gah! And it's still not done!

But I have a few more hiccups in my head.


	10. Chapter 10

I do not own Storm Hawks! Thanks to angel on wings for leaving two hiccups! Dunno if I'll get to them this chapter or the next right now….Turns out, I'll have to use your suggestion in the next chapter. But thanks for leaving two I certainly would never have thought of it!

On with the story!

Aerrow heard the hiss of the staff extending, and lunged for the side.

Dark Ace clapped from the sidelines and ended the training.

"Now, can anyone tell me how they've improved?"

Piper groaned. "I thought I had greased this staff."

Aerrow stretched, coming out of his tumble. "I didn't turn around to see what was behind me and just jumped."

"Exactly. Part of why I knocked you out once was because for some reason you had to look behind you instead of just acting. The reaction cost you valuable time. If you had stayed down, Master Cyclonis would be ruling the Terras by now. Piper, greasing your staff isn't the problem here. You have a lose piece."

"What? Where?"

Cyclonis rolled her eyes from where she was working on editing the film footage. Leave it to Dark Ace to turn everything into a lecture.

It had been three days since she was able to move around, and she was so glad that she only had a swollen ankle.

Finn was miserable. He could barely remain coherent now, and was continually napping. Junko was scared Finn was dying.

Cyclonis bit her lip. Without her crystals, there wasn't anything she could do on her own. All she could do was attract crystals in her staff to her, or use a hidden crystal to blow up a bolt headed at her.

Setting her completed work to the side, she stretched her upper body. Aerrow caught the motion out of the corner of his eye.

Realizing what he saw, he turned around, blushing furiously.

Piper hid a yawn behind her hand and yawned hugely, stretching her arms out and putting her chest forward. Aerrow sent his gaze up, his ears turning red.

Dark Ace wished the two girls would stop teasing the poor boy and have a little mercy.

If Aerrow didn't break soon, Dark Ace was going to be convinced the younger Sky Knight was straight as a synovial graph.

Sighing, he told the Storm Hawks to hit the showers and headed over to Cyclonis. Stork was sitting near her, convinced that she was doing something with the film that would attract flesh eating mites, or something.

"Ugh, who ever got a shot into your defense is, I'm just not seeing it." He groaned. Cyclonis had told him yesterday that once, a Storm Hawk was very close to actually harming her with their amazing reflexes and not stopping to think.

He'd been kept busy trying to figure out who had defeated him and come so close to harming his Master.

Cyclonis hid her smirk into the editing screen. She never said that the person in question had ever defeated Dark Ace. In fact, he never had.

Cyclonis saved her progress and proceeded to enter a new sequence. The film had gone along beautifully, and chances were, they could have a solid hour movie flick.

Realizing that Master Cyclonis was ignoring him, Dark Ace rose and left to get some hot chocolate. Trying to figure out who it was was giving him a headache.

Finn groaned and mumbled on the couch. Junko glanced at him, and then proceeded to wipe his brow with the damp cloth. He'd been excused from training as Dark Ace didn't need to put all the Storm Hawks out of commission. Just train them to find out who had nearly hurt his Master while he observed the progress of their skill.

In other words, he was going mad while wrestling with the problem.

Stork glanced into Cyclonis' face.

"You know, Finn got like that once, but at least his puzzle was a physical manifestation."

Cyclonis grinned at him.

* * *

She remembered the breathless speed with which Finn had gone from 'busted' to firing at her. All he did was have Junko turn around, and then she was in the sights of his weapon.

Never before was she so glad to have a crystal hidden up her sleeve. There was no time to mount a defense, just attack the bolt, and then, him.

She had no eyes for the Wallop. He was just a stair step to the blonde kid on his shoulders. The only thing that really bothered Cyclonis now was that when Finn had shot at her, rather than the bolt flying at an angle into her head, it was flat and level with the floor and headed to her breast.

She frowned. By all the laws of Physics, that should not have happened.

Of course, anyone watching her would presume that she was frowning at the editing.

* * *

Dark Ace sighed, and ran through the battles he had fought against the Storm Hawks while nursing his hot chocolate. He finally decided that aerial combat was out of the question. Master Cyclonis would just levitate herself, so roughly sixty percent of all the battles he had ever fought against the Storm Hawks became invalid and useless information for determining who the mysterious person was.

That left hand to hand combat. Dark Ace scowled into his hot chocolate. The only person he had ever actually taken time to cross blades with was Aerrow. But the one time he fought against Master Cyclonis, he had been there to quietly circle around and take him out.

Perhaps it was Piper? There was a strong resemblance between her and the towel girl she had fought at the wrestler's match.

How he had been absent from that social mishap he still had no idea. All he knew was that he had returned and defeated how many wrestlers to save Master Cyclonis from being caught by them? Was it ten? He hadn't bothered counting.

And then Master Cyclonis had insisted on getting them out of their hypnosis state and sending them home, salvaging what dignity she had left.

"Is your hot chocolate okay? You've been making a lot of faces at it." Dark Ace looked up to see the Wallop staring at him.

"No, I was just thinking."

"Oh, okay. Usually when Finn doesn't want to hog the mirror in the bathroom he finds another reflective surface to practice on."

Dark Ace filed that under a list of taunts to never use.

Finn could be scary when he wanted to. He also- Dark Ace paused. He thought back over the battles he had fought, and the times he had been absent from Cyclonis' side.

She had trapped the marksman and the Wallop inside of the storm machine while he had been gone….

"Junko, did Finn ever attack Master Cyclonis?"

Junko felt his ears prick. He settled his weight so that he could leap between Dark Ace and Finn while he pretended to think about his answer.

"Well, there was the time you stole the Atmos beacon and he nearly shot her when we got caught….why?"

Dark Ace stood up, stormed over to Cyclonis, and announced-

"The only Storm Hawk to come close to killing you was Finn, wasn't it?"

Aerrow and Piper, returning from their showers (separately, people, notice the plural) stopped where they were walking by.

What was going on?

"Ding ding ding, give the man a prize, he figured it out. Yes, Finn is the only one to ever come close to doing me actual harm. Would you like another puzzle to keep you occupied?"

She asked the last piece like one asks a dog if they wanted another cookie for being good. Dark Ace got the feeling that if she had written the riddles on a piece of paper, she would be waving it in his direction, like a doggie biscuit just out of reach of the dog sitting there.

"….not right now, thanks."

Dark Ace slunk off to find something other than his bored master to amuse himself with. As it was, Piper was creeping up on her.

"Bodily harm? When was this?"

"Oh, the first time you snuck into Terra Cyclonia. He probably doesn't brag about it because he was then trapped in the storm generator. But the time I tried to get you to join doesn't count, all you did was break a prototype crystal."

Piper leaned in close to Cyclonis and wrapped her arms around her from behind.

"I remember there being some emotional damage." She murmured into Cyclonis' ear.

Stork decided the brain eating mites could be left alone to escape whatever new disease was causing Piper and Cyclonis to act weirdly.

Once he figured out what, he would be back to combat it.

* * *

Aerrow sent Junko away to rest and amuse himself while he watched over Finn. It was so quiet without Finn running around and being loud. It was oppressive. Dark, gloomy, he felt trapped.

He ran a hand through Finn's hair, careful of the bump.

Maybe if he was paying more attention, that soap wouldn't have been on the ground. Then Finn wouldn't have hit his head and be out of commission. If he had just been paying more attention…

Dark Ace pressed a cup of hot chocolate into his hand.

"Thinking like that isn't going to help. And yes, it's a fresh cup." He pulled a chair over, and sat down.

"It wasn't your fault, and you should know better than to blame yourself. It never fixes anything and just wastes your time."

Aerrow nodded. "I just…I feel like the walls are closing in. Finn's sleeping way too much, and it's so quiet."

"Don't you have peaceful days on the Condor? I know you take impromptu vacations in between missions."

Aerrow rolled his eyes. Of course the Cyclonians spied on them. That or Dark Ace was very good at guessing.

"Even when we aren't under attack, there's the constant hum of the Condor around us. We even play music on our days off. Finn loves to mess with us when we play any music he doesn't like. It really irks us. So finally, he decides to have his cake and eat it too. He rigs up another needle, and plays both his and Piper's music at the same time. I went up the wall listening to them, before I noticed that the music oddly synched together."

Dark Ace nodded and looked at a point between Finn and Aerrow, keeping his eyes drifting between one and the other.

Hey, when someone needed to just talk, looking like an observant listener was usually for the best.

"And then Stork missed the off button and switched Finn's on to the bass enhancer and cut the volume for his record to half. That was beautiful to listen to. Even Piper agreed. Finn rarely messed with our music by changing it to something else after that."

Aerrow smiled affectionately at his wingman. "I just want him to wake up and be okay."

Dark Ace sighed in his head. This had horrible implications for what he saw earlier. Maybe Aerrow was bisexual? Or just worried about his marksman.

Dark Ace sipped his hot chocolate, to hide the bulge his eyes made when he recalled how he had phrased that last thought.

His marksman?

Geez, he really needed a distraction- why, hello.

"Was that there earlier?" He nudged Aerrow with the hand holding the hot chocolate cup and pointed.

"Hmm?" Aerrow said. He was glad that he wasn't actually drinking when Dark Ace got his attention, otherwise he would need another shower.

His hot chocolate was still hot, and Dark Ace's had seemed to somehow get to the comfortable warm but not cool drinking temperature.

Aerrow looked over, and nearly jumped. It was a record player! But- how?

Aerrow motioned for Dark Ace to stay with Finn and wondered over to the player, reaching up for his dagger….and finding he was in civilian clothes. He really hated that switch. He must have changed out and left his clothes and the armor to be washed and polished after the training.

Cursing his foresight for being limited to not needing to fight, he approached the record player cautiously. There were no crystals to power it, but there was a reflective surface that was dark and glossy and looked a little like ink when it was fresh and applied to paper.

The record player wasn't on, and there was a rack of records attached to the side. One of the records had the word STYX on it.

Shrugging, Aerrow turned around and waved to Dark Ace that it didn't look like the record player was some sort of bomb.

* * *

"This happened too when the pool was made." Piper looked over the record player. "Remember? We woke up to find that the pool had chairs and toys added to it."

"Yeah, but none of us was asleep when this showed up from nowhere and there was no pre-existing need for it." Stork chimed in. He was waving some sort of device around it, and so far was muttering off diseases and parasites from a mental checklist as the record player continued to be clean.

Cyclonis wheeled herself around the player.

"It doesn't run on crystals. What does it run on? Perhaps I can take it apart and-"

"But there aren't any places to take it apart. The buttons are all inset and the framing is solid." Junko observed.

"Did you look under it? A lot of times you can hide flaws in an otherwise perfect machine just by how you show it off." Cyclonis seemed to hiss darkly at that statement.

Dark Ace rolled his eyes. He had told Snipe that the equipment shouldn't go there, but noooo, the burly man just had to do things his way.

Junko lifted the record player up.

"Nope. Solid."

Cyclonis pouted. She wanted into the contraption because she was curious, not because she thought it might have a clue on how to heal Finn. After all, crystals powered many objects, and many crystals had secondary powers if they were worked just right, so what was powering the record player?

Piper sighed. "Well, let's presume that it's our mysterious benefactor and pick something to play."

She selected the STYX record and put it on.

The songs were odd. There were words to them. They were long, too. But the silence was driven back and Aerrow found that actually liked some of the songs.

Then the word 'domo' split through the silence.

_Domo arigatou, Mister Roboto,_

_Domo (domo) Domo (domo)_

_Domo arigatou, Mister Roboto_

Finn twitched. The music was odd, and but he was responding to it. The music made no sense to them. Why would Finn want to be called Kill Roy? At least, that's what it sounded like. Finn groaned and sat up.

"Are we on Vapos?" He struggled to his feet. Aerrow held out a hand to help him steady himself. "No, we just found some music you might like." He brought Finn over to the record player. His eyes were vacant and he wasn't even looking at the record player.

"Dude, I don't feel good." The static from the player filled the room. More on memory than any desire to listen to the music, Finn's hands slipped over the edge of the player and turned it over.

"My head is killing me-" he started to say as he set the record down, and then Finn and the player disappeared.

Vanished.

Right in front of them.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent in shock, and no one slept that night. The next morning, Piper screamed. She was clutching the picture from the Storm Hawks team day that they had. Stork was terrified because he thought the camera was going to trap his soul in there. Piper reassured him that the only thing it was trapping was a sense of time and that they were going to keep the picture.

Finn had vanished from the picture. She collapsed, sobbing. This was terrifying and no one knew how to combat it. Cyclonis wheeled herself over and picked up the dropped picture.

Damnit, if only she had her crystals!

Aerrow was in a slump. His thoughts were racing around and wouldn't stop. He was the one who had led Finn to the record player. He had thought it was safe. It was his fault that Finn was gone.

Dark Ace racked his brains for a way to keep them together. Storm Hawks were stronger than this; they had always thrashed him in a fight.

Stork was decimating his instruments, psychotic and border lining neurotic on thinking about how his instruments couldn't detect….whatever it was that had taken Finn. He tossed another idea of repairing the machines onto the floor. This doom was something that didn't relent.

Junko sat where the record player had appeared. His best friend was gone and there was no explanation for it….

"AAAAGH!"

Everyone jumped. Finn ran through the door from the fog and slammed it shut behind him. "Dude! I am never going near a record player again!"

The Storm Hawks stared at him, and then Piper started running.

GLOMP!

Dark Ace sighed. He didn't do glomps. Instead, he reached an arm in and patted Finn on the head.

"Well, I guess that means there's a use it or lose it policy at work here. I mean, there's always food left over, but we never see where it gets cleared off to. I guess the record player wasn't needed anymore once you were back on your feet. But still, yesterday was freaking weird." Cyclonis mulled aloud.

Dark Ace rolled his eyes. Piper was way too happy to have her team mate back to discuss the possibilities with Master Cyclonis.

"Finn, do us all a favor and smack Aerrow over the back of his head." Dark Ace commanded.

"Huh? Why?"

"He was depressed, Junko was sick, Stork seems to have mind worms, and Piper's been a wreck. I'm the only one who did think that you were coming back."

"Awww, did you miss me?" Finn worked his way through the group hug and hugged Dark Ace.

Aerrow scowled something fierce. In fact, all the Storm Hawks looked ready to disembowel him. Dark Ace shuddered. Finn really was central to the team, wasn't he?

Finn let go, and whipped his hand over the back of Aerrow's head. "That's for being a quitter and too harsh on yourself. This is for worrying." Finn drew back a fist.

Aerrow braced himself. The fist thunked gently into his shoulder, before Finn wrapped himself around Aerrow.

"It wasn't your fault; you know I get myself into these messes a lot." Finn went around, purring and rubbing into the Storm Hawks and reminding them that he was okay, that he was here.

They watched the movie that Aerrow, Piper, and Cyclonis made. No one really focused on it, they were too busy lying down and curling around Finn.

They all fell asleep that way.

* * *

Finn woke up from his accident after having the oddest dream. He pushed himself up from the couch and looked around. Cyclonis was in a wheelchair, and Junko was wringing out a cloth.

"Hey, how long have I been out?"

"Oh, about three days. It's really good that you woke up, Aerrow's gonna be back from the showers in a few seconds, and Dark Ace has been making faces at his hot chocolate."

Glancing over at Dark Ace who was ranting to Cyclonis about something, Finn stretched and got off the bed. His head gave a dull throb, but otherwise left him alone.

He really hoped that he never had hit his head again.

* * *

Aerrow was pleasantly surprised to see Finn up and about after coming back from his shower. Piper was talking to Cyclonis, and as he passed Dark Ace, the man gave him a spare cup of hot chocolate.

"The next time you beat yourself up over something you can't control, I'm dumping the hot chocolate on you."

Aerrow accepted the cup and thanked him, promising to keep the 'advice' in mind. He wandered over to Finn, who was starting to walk around and stretch out his muscles after being laid up for so long.

"How hard did I hit my head?"

"Harder than the time Starling dropped a bomb to take out the Cyclonian guards I was facing. I've been meaning to ask you, did Starling's bomb look anything like the time pulse from the clock tower to you?"

"Dude, how would I know? I never saw either of them."

"Well, they were orbs with yellow crystals in them. Never mind, I was just thinking about it because Piper and Cyclonis were talking about crystals while we were shooting the movie. Think you'll be up for a movie tonight?"

Finn grabbed Aerrow and steered him away from the others.

Then, in a low voice he asked him, "Junko didn't tape me sleeping, did he?"

Aerrow doubled over howling with laughter. Or he would have. Instead, he just grinned and clapped Finn on the back. "Of course not." His mouth was twitching into a smile at the corners.

"Come on, let's get you something to eat." Finn agreed whole heartedly and headed over to the table.

* * *

A/N: This is so weird. But I do not own STYX either, just a CD. I couldn't resist. Also, I have about three more hiccups to work with, thank you again angel on wings. I managed to write pairings out of my system so from now on in this fanfic, expect me to poke fun at any and all pairings that can be done in the Storm Hawks! Also, don't take anything about it seriously, it's for laughs.

I mean, I already made a subtle jab at the fact that Finn can be paired up with any and all of his team mates.


	11. Chapter 11

I do not own Storm Hawks!

Thanks to angel on wings and to The Alien of Pluto for their reviews! I would have had this up a week ago, but then midterms…..sob.

On with the story!

"Finn, are you wearing Aerrow's pants?" Piper asked. After the noises from last night, please let him say no….

"Dude! Aerrow, we definitely need closets or some sort of clean and dirty clothing that does not consist of the floor and hamper basket. It happened again!" Finn walked off to find his own pants while Aerrow's pants pulled, stretched, and gapped at all the wrong and right places.

Piper slapped a hand over her face and peeked through the fingers. Cyclonis rolled her eyes. Dark Ace decided that maybe he needed a stronger cup of hot chocolate. Stork glanced up from the latest viral defense, and goggled at Finn from his station.

Junko sighed. "No matter how I work it, we just can't have closets on the Condor. It's always converted into space for parts, not clothes."

"Dude, it's no fault of your own. I'll just get out of these and into something a little more my size. I mean, it's not Aerrow's fault his hips slim down like a guy's and mine flare out like a girl's." Finn clapped a hand on Junko's shoulder as he walked by, and headed into what a curtain deemed the men's room.

Piper opened her mouth, and Cyclonis slapped her hand over it.

Dark Ace chocked on his hot chocolate.

Aerrow, meanwhile, just rolled his eyes. After doing laundry on the Condor, he figured himself lucky that the clothes came out near the size they went in, instead of shrinking, or, thanks to one of Storks paranoid beliefs, electric blue.

Aerrow's pants were thrown past the gap over to where his cot was, and Finn shimmied into a clean pair of shorts.

Piper and Cyclonis were trying not to look at each other, because they would die laughing if they did. Aerrow was glaring murder at Dark Ace who was cleaning up what little hot chocolate got on his clothes.

Finn strolled out of the make shift tent, and looked around.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone is fine. We are just surprised that you and Aerrow seem to swap clothes on a regular basis." Cyclonis answered primly in her diplomatic voice. To think she would ever actually use that training. She made a mental note to pay a stipend to the un-employed teacher when she got back.

"So? I thought girls traded clothes all the time. And besides, Aerrow and I are mostly the same size, as compared to Piper and Stork. I remember when I got their pants mixed up because I was so tired. That was funny, looking back at it."

Piper and Stork shuddered.

Cyclonis chose not to ask, as the other Storm Hawks displayed similar reactions. She looked at Dark Ace, who made the universal sign for 'don't ask me' by raising both shoulders and shrugging.

Finn strolled by.

"Oh, and Aerrow, that card you thought I had swiped last night? I found it under your cot." Finn flipped the Jack of hearts at Aerrow, such that the card twisted on an axis and landed by him. Aerrow blinked.

"Ah, sorry, Finn."

"Dude, no problem. I only bring it up because Piper's been scrutinizing us since breakfast."

"Piper!"

For all the trouble she was in, Piper was glad for the misunderstanding.

* * *

After the morning fiasco, Dark Ace banned the children from all dangerous objects and sat them down with a mad-libs game to play. Soon, the children were raucous, but no longer trying to kill each other over petty disputes.

Also, the time for lunch went by without anyone noticing, which meant six ravenous teenagers and Radarr when dinner came around. Dark Ace sorted through the gloopy fruit until he found the fixings for dinner. Corn, cauliflower, and cooked spinach along with seared ribs looked to be on the menu tonight.

He rolled up his sleeves and pulled on an apron, setting to work in the mini-kitchen that had been provided to suit the needs and wants of the divers group, rather than the mysterious benefactor guessing what all they were in the mood for, and how much they wanted.

The starch and two vegetables were put in their own porcelain containers with some water and left to cook.

The ribs were then cut, and cooked, with a generous slathering of sauce that Dark Ace whipped up with the spices on hand with vinegar, brown sugar, jalapenos and honey.

He rubbed his hands together when he washed them. Finally, something productive he could actually do.

* * *

The Storm Hawks and Master Cyclonis were sitting at the table. Dark Ace was wearing a blue apron and serving them dinner. Finn pushed his food around on his plate.

Dark Ace seemed to be refraining from commenting on his behavior. No one had critiqued the food (yet), and they were talking about how the day went and what to do tomorrow.

The pool was getting kind of old, so Aerrow was racking his brains for a new activity to keep them busy.

Piper finally picked up the rib bones and started gnawing on them, before shooting a 'It's really good, thanks.' at Dark Ace.

He nodded with a small smile pulling at his lips. The others rushed to praise him, apologizing for taking so long, they were really hungry. Finn didn't say anything, he was lost in thought.

Finn finally sighed, and sat up straighter, putting his shoulders back. Dark Ace braced himself.

"Hey, Cyclonis, I have a question."

At the head of the table, flanked by Aerrow on her left, and Dark Ace on her right, Cyclonis glanced down the left side of the table at Finn.

"Yes?"

The others fell quiet, and slowly chewed their food. No one reached for their drinks.

"How come we've never seen Cyclonians eat before now? I mean, I know you receive shipments of donuts, but I've never sneaked up on a Talon taking a break for lunch. Why's that?"

Cyclonis shrugged. "Timing, most likely. Atmos is big enough for three time zones, and some even argue for four time zones. The Talons are stationed out longer than you are, and have probably adjusted to the different times for eating, where as I've noticed, you all eat when you are hungry, and mostly eat meals together when able to."

Cyclonis eyed her glass.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, thanks." Finn bit into his food, finally dining.

Everyone, relieved that a typical Finn joke wasn't coming down the table, reached for their glasses and had a long gulp from them.

"Wow! This is good!"

Piper snorted her milk from the exclamation and the sheer volume of the yell. All around the table, glasses hit the wood and Storm Hawks choked.

Cyclonis paused in her drinking, before taking a deliberate swallow. Her undoing was looking at Aerrow and Piper next to him. She started giggling, and the rest was history.

When Finn wanted milk to come out of your nose, the only way to stop it was to not drink.

* * *

Aerrow finally came up with an idea that everyone agreed with, after Dark Ace documented the other ideas and why they weren't viable at the moment.

Rappelling, rock climbing, or bungee jumping seemed to be the consensus. They left the table for some quiet meditation, and then parted for bed. The girls headed upstairs and got ready for bed.

Piper animatedly talked to Cyclonis about the time she needed to make and anti-gravity crystal, or else Stork would be stuck to Lugey for the rest of his life.

"Not the idiot brother in the Raptors?"

"The very same. I had them pulling me from one shelf to the other. Although, during the confusion, I went from being next to a yellow crate to a red crate, but I didn't think much about it then. I was short on time."

"Ah, yes. He was very glad to get a neutral crystal and a Gravitron crystal out of the ordeal, and besides, the Raptors make excellent maids I hear."

Piper looked shocked at Cyclonis, but then the image, of Repton fuming in a light pink apron with daisies embroidered on it danced through her head.

Downstairs, the men jumped as the thundering laughter came down the stairs. Finn gave Aerrow a slightly alarmed look.

"Do they know just how loud they're laughing?"

Aerrow shook his head. If they were laughing that hard, he could find out about what in the morning.

* * *

In the morning, the pool was half the width it had been yesterday. In its place, against the wall, there was the equipment to rappel against the wall that had holds jutting out for climbing, an a beam had been cleared in the ceiling with a ladder built into the wall.

Where the pool used to be, there was an inflated mattress.

Aerrow blinked at the set up.

"Okay, so the mysterious benefactor listens to us. I'm slightly creeped out."

"Dude, I just say thank you and don't think about it." Finn examined the gear. He picked up a rope and tugged on it.

"It looks safe, all they forgot to supply us with was instructors to watch us and weight us down while we climb." Finn tossed the rope back where he found it.

Stork was going through the equipment anyway, being his paranoid self.

Junko pointed a finger at himself.

"I can take care of the weights. And I can spot. I've got the eyes of a hawk."

Dark Ace rolled his eyes. He did so again, for emphasis.

Junko didn't see him.

"Right, well, I'm going to check out the bungee cord." Dark Ace made sure not to be anywhere near the wall or the Wallop. He had a feeling that Junko was far-sighted, and needed help with near sighted objects.

Such as clipping the rope to himself before the others started climbing.

The day was spent climbing up the wall, which was a good twenty feet at the shortest distance. Junko seemed to really not want anything more than to weigh down his teammates and help them descend once they were done.

After lunch they shifted the focus to the bungee jumping and gave Junko a rest, and Dark Ace had three heart stopping moments.

One was when Piper snapped back up past the beam.

Another was when Stork started screaming after passing out from the first pass, just dangling over the mattress.

But what really made his heart freeze for that aching second before realizing that everything was okay was when Finn reached the bottom of his descent on the first drop and slipped out of the harness.

Dark Ace heard him land on the mattress, and could only pray to Master Cyclonis that it didn't mean he had killed Finn.

After that, Dark Ace was done with the bungee jumping. He packed everything up and locked it, with a severe admonishment that after the scares, he was the only one allowed to supervise the bungee jumping.

Aerrow had held up a hand with a pointer finger extended to argue his case against the rules, then re-thought the action, and scratched the back of his head instead.

"Okay, bungee jumping is off the list. Let's get back to the wall climbing."

"Rock."

"Whichever, Finn."

The rest of the evening was mostly peaceful. Dark Ace watched the kids climb, and Junko was actually a good conversationalist.

Who knew the Wallop was Finn's best friend.

* * *

It was finally time for bed, and as Dark Ace ushered the teenagers through the showers and into bed, he stopped and looked at a painting that had appeared over the table.

It was the Colonel, a mafia boss that the Cyclonians made sure to be on good terms with, because fighting Atmos and not Colonel was actually a pretty big difference.

The man had strings in Cyclonia and Atmos, but more in Atmos. Master Cyclonis was very careful in taking the Colonel out. She couldn't afford the mafia siding with Atmos over the war. They needed to remain and independent, neutral factor that thought they could survive when the Cyclonians won.

Dark Ace grinned, and then removed the painting.

He didn't have much of an appreciation for oil paintings.

* * *

A/N: I am now offering gift fanfics to people who reviewed and helped Lights, Camera, Hiccup! get to where it is today. As I am currently on Spring Break, please know that this is a very limited offer, but I will do my best to get around to everything people request.

The only limit is that it must be something allowed on by the guidelines. Also, I have ideas of previous fanfics floating in my head, so expect several stories to be up and running. I will credit you for your gift. But this means I can finally get around to updating my other fanfics!


	12. Chapter 12

I do not own Storm Hawks! Thanks to angel on wings, The Alien of Pluto, and Mahou Shoujo Crystalic Katomi for their reviews! I'm probably going to be using them for the next three chapters or so.

UPDATED: Urk….all of this was written before I went back to school….I stopped updating for how long? T.T Well, now it's back! Expect a chapter 13 soon! (the additional writing to stop this from being a filler chapter comes after the stupid conscious)

On with the story!

Finn stared at the wall with the different colored protrusions. The challenge Dark Ace had set was to climb up the wall and ring the bell at the top.

He had emphasized that the actual climbing of the wall was to occur for the challenge to be met.

Junko must have told him about what Finn did to become Domo. Was it his fault he thought outside the box so often?

Finn continued to glare at the wall. Behind him, Aerrow, Piper, and Master Cyclonis had already finished the climb. They were talking about other challenges, such as the fact that the wall was no longer straight up and down, and at another spot, there was a ledge where the climber had to actually work their way over the ledge to continue on.

Stork was waiting impatiently for his turn at the bell, and Junko was waiting for Finn to indicate that he was actually going to do the test. Dark Ace lounged against a pillar and watched the kids.

No one had even asked him why he was up so early, and decided to indulge him in his little challenge.

Too bad Finn was stalling for so long.

Finn sighed, before walking over to the wall once Stork was trying to convince Junko to let him cut the line and go ahead of Finn.

Finn was halfway up the wall before Junko indicated where he had been with a sweep of his arm. It wasn't until Finn was at the top that Stork could see past Junko and ask,

"Where is he?"

Ding.

Heads turned to look at Finn, at the top of the fifteen foot wall, pulling his hand back from the bell.

"Finn! How are you going to get down?" Piper scolded him. Oh great, now one of them had to go up and carry him down.

Finn looked at her. "Like this."

Then he jumped over the backside of the wall and fell down. Well, they assumed he fell down.

Dark Ace grinned at their reactions as they gasped and rushed to the wall.

"Finn? Finn!"

Finn came around the right side as Aerrow indicated for them to go around the left side to check on the wingman.

"Guys, I'm okay. There's a slide in the back." Finn waved a carefree hand at the wall. "I mean, didn't you guys wonder why Dark Ace went to all the trouble to put a bell up there for no apparent reason?"

As one, the group turned around to look at Dark Ace, who was starring at them with amusement written all over his face.

"When I get bored, I raise a little hell." He told them. Aerrow looked at Piper. She nodded.

"Are you aware that this could turn into a prank war, and that Aerrow and Piper do live with Finn?" Stork asked Dark Ace.

"Your point being, he'll talk them out of it." Dark Ace settled against the pillar. Stork sighed.

To everyone's stunned amazement, Finn actually lectured Aerrow and Piper about how a real prank war was started, and the rule was, you can only return fire if you were a victim.

They settled down grudgingly and finally admitted later in the morning that assuming Dark Ace had nothing more than the bell set up was a lax call on their part. Finn beamed at them.

"Besides, the slide is really cool. You guys want a turn?"

Dark Ace left to find something to amuse himself with, as the playground fairly erupted under his feet.

Finn smirked at him from across the room. He mouthed 'Payback' at him.

Dark Ace held up his hands in surrender. Being surrounded by a bunch of teenagers regressing to the toddler stage and kicking up a lot of noise and fun was lonely to watch.

Who knew Finn had an evil streak in him?

* * *

The Storm Hawks and Master Cyclonis were exhausted by mid afternoon. Dark Ace arrived with juice boxes, crackers, meat, and cheese.

Everyone laughed, and settled into a good natured picnic at the makeshift playground. Junko had rigged a net around the air mattress, and turned it into some kind of jumping trampoline.

Stork had dismantled the bungee cord and the stairs leading up to it and made a set of monkey bars over the deep end of the pool. Radarr was soaking from when he lost his balance, and so was Finn.

Well, okay, Finn hadn't let go. Instead, he had pulled himself up between the bars, got a leg over, stood up, and then leapt from the bars into the pool.

After that, everyone wanted to try it. Dark Ace had hollered at them so loudly that they stopped before they got started, and slunk off to the rest of the playground while Dark Ace turned back around to the miniature kitchen. He grumbled under his breath about stupid stunts and how there was no emergency ward or healing crystals for sprains and cracked heads.

He was really beginning to feel like the only responsible adult while the teenagers retrograded back into children.

He stopped fixing the snacks. Had the Storm Hawks ever had a chance to be children? He remembered Master Cyclonis had a raggedy doll at one point, and that when the doll disappeared one night, she just carried on.

Disturbed by the feeling of loss that the Storm Hawks went through, Dark Ace continued working in the kitchen and monitoring the teens.

Atmos, he had had a choice as a kid to join the Storm Hawks. What choices did they have?

Dark Ace stopped making sandwiches the way each kid preferred them, grabbed a box of crackers, and started chopping meat and slicing cheese.

Stupid conscious.

* * *

He should have known. Dark Ace glared at them from the trampoline as he watched Finn double over howling with laughter. The others were switching their gazes, back and forth. The picnic has stopped when Dark Ace came back with napkins to wipe their faces, and now the napkins were floating down about them.

Stork was gaping at the raised platform. Finally, his mouth shut. "So that's where the table went."

Finn started gasping as he calmed down. "Yeah, haha, sorry to borrow your catapult table, but I just had to get even. Oh, man, the look on your face when you realized you'd been had! WAHAHAHAHAHA! Woohoo, weee, hahaha."

Dark Ace grumbled and made his way off the bouncing bed.

Master Cyclonis smiled at him, a wry look in her face. "Don't feel bad, Dark Ace. I was hit with the same trick when I went to retrieve a Crystal from them myself."

Dark Ace raised an eyebrow. Master Cyclonis stood up and wiped the crumbs from her clothes. The dignified action broke the hours of carefree playing.

The Storm Hawks helped clean up. Piper and Master Cyclonis shook out the clothe and folded it, Aerrow and Radarr swept and disposed of the crumbs, Finn jumped around for the falling napkins, leaving Stork and Junko to set up the table.

Dark Ace cleaned up the kitchen and put the sandwiches in stasis so that they would be good for dinner or a later snack. Well, the cold box had the word Stasis on it and it made ice, so it was stasis.

When he turned around, the Storm Hawks were giving Finn a nudge in his direction. Dark Ace decided that the sink needed a very thorough cleaning.

"Er, hi." Finn coughed above him. Dark Ace didn't look up. "Uhm, about the launch pad, you do remember that I said only the victim could get back about a prank? Well, I couldn't help it. The timing was just so perfect. I had no right to tease you like that. I'm sorry."

Dark Ace paused, and stood up.

"It was tasteless, Finn. But the timing was amazing. It's just, the entire time all of you have been goofing off, I've been thinking about what a depraved childhood all of you have…it's kind of ironic that I'm the one with the most idyllic childhood."

Finn raised an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?" Dark Ace looked at him.

"You had the most average childhood compared to the social norm. Sure, people try to kill us every time we wake up or fall asleep, but so far….we've had fun. We don't doubt why we do what we do, and we question it pretty often. For us, we're happy. Weren't you?"

"Yes." Dark Ace kept his mask stony. Let's not review how he got the entire Squadron killed when he was a kid. Vomiting up over the loss of Lighting Strike after his promotion into the Cyclonian Ranks…that was not a night worth repeating.

Of course, double the irony in that a Lighting Strike Crystal had taken him out in last confrontation with Piper and Aerrow…okay, the overload from the floating Far Side Crystal had destroyed him, but his butt was still whupped.

"So, truce?" Finn stuck his hand out. Dark Ace looked at it. "Truce."

"Oh, come on, I don't do inane things like rig a hand shake. I'd rather rig a milk shake. There was this one time, Aerrow had left his unattended, and I dropped a mentos into it. He came back just as it sank below the milk and into the soda I had added earlier. It went everywhere."

Unfortunately, at the words 'rig a milk shake', Dark Ace's thoughts had gone somewhere very naughty. He snapped out of it and signaled desperately that they had made up, and now it was awkward.

Master Cyclonis looked to the others. What could they do know?

"I found some magazines! Including the old one from when was doing the training for our Stratosphere training. Though how Cyclonians attended a photo shoot for the magazine cover I have no idea." Junko scratched the back of his head.

"Dude, that's because you can send in photo ops or prints for the magazine to select from. There was an article in there about how important the Time Pulse is, and what better way to get people's attention than to put Ravess on the cover of something."

Dark Ace decided not to mention that Ravess would make someone eat their castrated genitals before being on the cover of anything indecent. She had class, and she valued it.

Master Cyclonis rolled her eyes and steered the conversation to something safer. "Yes, because putting the Storm Hawks on the front of the magazine wouldn't have quite the same impact, now would it?"

"Of course it wouldn't. No one looks at us and feels threatened." Aerrow blinked and did a double take. "I mean, they usually feel annoyed-" Now his team mates were glaring at him, while Dark Ace and Master Cyclonis sighed and rolled their eyes. "That is, I mean to say that, we, uhm…."

Finn dropped his glare. "We aren't that popular, and still aren't a registered Sky Knight Squadron. The only 'official' person is Aerrow, and he can't be on a magazine by himself, they'll think there's an interview inside."

With the situation diffused, Dark Ace sat at the table. "Why is it red instead of blue?"

"We ran out of blue paint, and never seem to get around to it. It's one of those permanent chores on the list, right after 'Completely overhauling the Condor'." Piper stated in a voice that treated the subject in a matter of fact tone.

"So, what shall we do today?" Junko asked. He too sat at the table. Piper walked over and started pulling chairs over. The others helped her, and soon everyone was at the table.

"Well, we could play cards, a board game, assign chores to clean up the rest of the place, train, swap life stories, do another home movie, and you guys could help with ideas…"

A/N: No, seriously guys, I have reviews of hiccups, and since my Spring Break is long over, as an apology for the long wait to update, I need ideas for what to have them do next. They've done laser tag, the pool, cooking, bath times, emotional roller coasters, near prank wars (which reminds me of the prank wars fanfic I really should write about Finn and the Cyclonian troops), wondered about in my head (met Starling), and trained…. I'll come up with something if you- CAROUSELSS! Those horse rides that go around and round! Let's have a theme park next! Woohoo! Expect chapter 13 soon! I knew you guys would help me have ideas on how to continue!


	13. Chapter 13

I do not own Storm Hawks! Thanks still to angel on wings, The Alien of Pluto, YamiPluto and Mahou Shoujo Crystalic Katom for their reviews and encouragement!

On with the Story!

After spending the afternoon tossing around ideas, Dark Ace brought out the sandwiches and the Storm Hawks spent the time in mental exercises.

Dark Ace decided that the girls had a mean streak with all of the riddles that they tossed out. For a while, Dark Ace could keep up with the classic ones, but Aerrow could keep pace with the wordy ones, that actually looked for the letters inside the word, or to spell a new word.

Finn just wrote down the riddles.

Junko and Stork shared curious looks, and shrugged. If Finn wanted to sit out on the riddles, fine by them. Then it was time for the boys to ask riddles. They stopped and started several times, but all the riddles they knew had already been taken.

Finn finally spoke up.

"There's a beautiful village girl, and three men fighting for her attention. You make the fourth man. You all agree to a duel. There's a rope, a knife, a bag, and a whip. What weapon do you choose?"

The girls stared at him for a minute, and then fell to whispers.

Aerrow gave Finn a questioning glance. That wasn't a riddle that was a marker of who you were, and how creative you could be. When Finn had asked Aerrow that riddle long ago, Aerrow had said that he wouldn't attend the duel. He made the fourth man, there was no indication that he liked the girl, and he wouldn't fight for something he saw no cause to.

Finn had answered that we would take the bag to the duel. He didn't tell Aerrow what the bag was for.

Now the girls were arguing, and persuading each other. Finn gave them an amused look, and turned back to the list of riddles. Then he glanced at the watch.

"Not to hurry you ladies up, but we're due for bedtime before Nurse Ace gets cranky." Dark Ace fell out of his chair in horror. Then he glared at Finn. With a yelp, Finn ran off with Dark Ace chasing him.

"That's it! You can't keep a joke to yourself, can you!" Finn raced up the stairs to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door. Dark Ace sat outside. The others looked at each other. Piper sighed.

"We would use the rope and trick the men into a pit, then tell the father that the girl has injured several men of repute in their courting, and leave."

"Wise choice, it punishes everyone except yourself." Stork nodded his approval. The girls bathed first, and went to bed. Aerrow, Junko, and Stork availed themselves to the girl's facilities with their permission and when they came out, Dark Ace was camping at the door to the men's room. They headed off to bed.

* * *

When everyone woke up the next day, everything was gone from yesterday. Instead, it looked like a knock-off from Terra Neon had replaced it.

Aerrow groaned. After Ayrgyrn's training, no one had ever wanted to go back to Terra Neon, which saved them a lot of Crystals, but Aerrow definitely didn't feel like telling Dark Ace that playing games was how they beat them and their Enhancing Crystals.

Master Cyclonis was pinching herself.

"You okay?" Piper asked, taking the hand that had been inflicting harm into her own.

"I've never been to a theme park before. Or is this an amusement park? I can't tell…" Master Cyclonis trailed off in a dazed voice.

"You've never been to a theme park before." Stork deadpanned. "Ever."

"It's not like I have time to goof off when I have a Terra to run and a war to fight, Storm Hawk." Cyclonis bit back.

"Aw, don't be like that. Stork is surprised, that's all. The way Finn goes on about it, you'd think it was a crime for no one to be able to go to a park." Junko blundered on, and Piper winced. She laced her fingers through Cyclonis'.

"It is a crime." Cyclonis darkly muttered to herself. "All this fun, and no one to share it with."

Aerrow straightened up. "All right, we have a mission. And that mission is to show Master Cyclonis how much fun these places can be. Dark Ace and Finn can catch up to us later. Let's get dressed and pack lunch, cause this place looks bigger than usual."

Only Piper felt the impulsive thrill of having a day to herself when Cyclonis squeezed her hand.

"Thank you." Master Cyclonis stated, then she dragged Piper away to change out of their pajamas and into their usual attire.

* * *

Finn felt a crick in his neck when he woke up. Dark Ace was muttering to himself, and there was a scratch of paper on pencil.

"Whatcha doin'?" Finn called through the door.

"An Amusement Park moved in last night, so I'm mapping what all I can see. Even the ceiling seems to have moved farther away."

"Mmmmhmmm." Finn stretched and worked the cracks out of his body.

"Finn, I won't hurt you. Excessively. I just was so surprised that you shot your mouth off like that, that I reacted without thinking. Will you please open the door?"

Finn rubbed his shoulder for a minute. "Fine, I wanted to see the park anyways." Finn opened the door, and Dark Ace headed straight for the loo.

Shaking his head, Finn looked out at the park. There was a Ferris Wheel near the back of the park, farthest away from them. There were six roller coasters, varying in height and length. In fact, one of them was a low ride obviously meant for children that dropped into a tunnel. There was a small food court, and a few concession stands scattered around.

Finn had a scary thought about a movie they had heard about, where eating spirit's food meant that the spirits would turn you into pigs and eat you. Finn checked for a bath house. No such thing. Guess that meant it was safe.

There were arcades also scattered around, and a few shooting galleries and skill games too. Then Finn looked the other way. More roller coasters and entrances to other attractions vanished into the distance. Finn ulped when he realized he couldn't see an entrance. Movement nearby alerted him to his friends.

"Hey, Finn! We found some brochures and a couple maps about this place! It's literally a couple hundred square feet! It even comes with hotels, and here's your key to your room, and a pass into the park. There was a notice that all expenses were paid, just try not to break anything, and if we see something and want it, just pay with this."

Cyclonis held up her hand that had a bracelet with a card charm on it. "This is weird and creepy, but I've never done anything like this before, so I'm taking the most advantage of it! Woohoo!"

Cyclonis bounced off to the restroom to find a hair band for Piper, and Dark Ace came out drying his hands.

"Was that….?"

"Apparently, it's her first time, and she's stoked. Dark Ace? Is everything okay? You just turned pale."

"Please don't ever phrase it like that ever again."

"Huh? Okay. Want to join them? They found actual maps."

Dark Ace nodded and headed out. He would have to set the laundry aside for another day. Master Cyclonis ran past them with her hair up in a ponytail. Finn blinked. Dark Ace blinked.

That…was a lot of neck for a skinny girl. She looked better with her hair down and the cowl of feathers up. But she had changed into her short cape and her usual attire to enjoy the park.

Finn slapped himself and headed after her. He had to double back and drag Dark Ace along. The poor man had turned to stone.

* * *

After deciding that the day belonged to Master Cyclonis, the Storm Hawks allowed her to take the lead and do whatever she wanted.

Up one side of the street they went, Master Cyclonis rushing through the gates and up to the roller coasters and attractions. They got a break when she ran into a show about classic monsters and where to find them (with snippets on how to escape). Finn explained how sitting in front of a roller coaster meant that you saw everything coming, but the far back of the coaster was the fastest place to be.

He also inserted that the exits were shorter than the entrance line, and both led to the same place, and since the park was for them, why not take the short cut?

Cyclonis had actually jumped around before running through the exit of the next ride and getting there faster.

Finn picked up his feet and kept up with the others. Radarr was excused, because none of the rides so far accommodated for someone of his size. Junko could squeeze into some, but a two person car was taken up by him completely. Stork had actually needed someone to peel him out of his seat before he relocated to the second row. He wanted to see his doom, but doomed was he if he actually flew out of his seat.

Aerrow, Piper, and Master Cyclonis were traditionally the ones in front, or in the first car.

Finn and Dark Ace rode in the back. Piper had teased them for being speed demons, and Dark Ace had teased her right back about needing to know.

The rest of the morning was passed in making their way to the Ferris Wheel, which was quickly becoming the point of orientation.

They finally rested in a food court, and ate some fruit and yogurt. Piper had taken one look at Junko eating the burgers and had some water with a grilled cheese sandwich with chicken strips. Dark Ace wandered around, waiting for his stomach to settle, and discreetly removed an oil painting to the trash.

Why did the Colonel keep popping up? He thought he had gotten rid of the painting two nights ago.

Oh well, one man's trash is another man's treasure, he supposed.

He couldn't stop his exclamation of surprise when he saw what was next to the painting.

"When were you, the ever up righteous Storm Hawks, Atmos's Most Wanted?" He slammed the paper on the table.

"That's a long story…" Aerrow trailed off, before sucking down some water. Never eat and talk with your mouth full.

"What happened?" Master Cyclonis picked up a french fry and watched them.

Aerrow and Piper looked at each other. Piper looked at Aerrow's half-eaten sandwich and her empty plate.

"Well, it started with Finn's crush interrupting a cook out on the Condor…"

* * *

"And it then Finn told Harrier, that if they let him have it for another ride, he would buff it right out!"

The Storm Hawks lazed around, with Dark Ace and Master Cyclonis laughing. Finn rolled his eyes.

"For something that old, it flew very well. Of course, I think I'm actually kinda jealous of that design. The only reason I haven't modified my own ride is because I couldn't mount a cross bow on that bi-wing ride. I'd have to do it manually, and couldn't account for any changes in the enemy flight pattern."

Dark Ace nodded. That was a sound reason.

"Okay, who's ready for the next ride?" Cyclonis stood up. Junko had cleared the tables and wiped them down while Piper talked.

It had taken over an hour to tell the Cyclonians what had happened, and now they lazily made their way back onto the street.  
The next ride was a four person back to back car, with a gun mounted on front. Finn rubbed his hands and hopped right in.

The ride had a few levels to it, and Dark Ace was growling about how the gun jumped when it fired. Finn's didn't jump, but he seemed to have a trick to how he handled his.

Finn set the new high score, with Master Cyclonis and Stork taking second and third. Dark Ace sulked.

"Hey, we can do this again tomorrow if you want." Finn slung his arm over Dark Ace's shoulder. "You did very well for your first time."

Dark Ace smiled. Even though the Marksman had to stand on his toes to comfort him, he had.

"Thanks Finn. I would like some pointers next time."

* * *

Turned out, there were more rides like that, and other rides that were more for information than anything else. Dark Ace got better, but he never beat Finn when it came to the score.

Then they came to the Tunnel Of Love. All of the seats were for two people. The advisory noted that the ride was smooth and slow, with a notice for breaking down occasionally, and to remain seated.

Dark Ace refrained from all of the comments going through his head. Finn looked around. "Well, if Radarr joins us, that makes an even eight people, so no one goes through alone."

"Finn? Are you feeling okay?" Aerrow gave the blond a concerned look.

"It's dark in there! And in case you forgot, Gorge Madness." They way he added the last statement in a sing-song voice that he was known for when making an obvious point rang through the group.

"Triggering a relapse would be bad." Stork commented. "I vote myself for the task. I know the most, and I'm strong, so if Finn goes berserk, you'll know to run by the girly screams behind you."

Dark Ace and Finn glared at him. "It's for your own good, and you admitted it." Stork reminded him.

Radarr and Junko went first, in case anything broke, followed by Master Cyclonis and Piper, then Aerrow and Dark Ace, and lastly, Finn and Stork.

The pairings were based on mutual skill. Dark Ace and Aerrow seethed through the ride, while ahead of them, the ladies gushed over the romantic setting. The ride broke down.

"False alarm, guys. The ride's on a random timer to do that." Junko called through the loud speaker. "It's kinda funny, actually. And yes, I can see all of you. The cameras are like Stork's peepers, and- where's Finn?"

"He's cowering under the seat. The safety belt came off." Stork called out.

"Oh. What's he doing under the seat?"

"Finding a happy place." Stork stated in a blasé tone. "Can you get the ride going again?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Dark Ace and Aerrow were glad for the dark spell that Junko accidentally triggered, because that meant a moment to listen and see if Stork was being a part of Finn's happy place. Aerrow decided that perhaps a talent show was in order. Dark Ace wished he knew what Merbs were terrified of, besides Bog Howlers.

* * *

After the creepy love ride, they found a country themed section of the park. There was a bull ride, and Stork rubbed his hands together.

"To the last I grapple with thee." He murmured, and headed for the mechanical bull.

"Either Finn triggered a relapse for Stork's Sky Shock from the Leviathan, or this is what Arygyrn trained him on." Piper murmured to Aerrow. The others watched, and Dark Ace remarked on if Stork could stay on for eight seconds.

Finn snorted.

"He's not coming off until he wants to, Dark Ace." Aerrow actually glowered at Stork. Piper slapped her hand over her face.

Why did Finn always get oblivious to people flirting with him! And why was Aerrow interested? Was it because she had paired up with Cyclonis at the tunnel, or when the roller coaster was a two seater? But Aerrow had been gracious to give her the front seat instead!

Cyclonis looked around. "Hey, Aerrow, what's that?" Piper looked over. Cyclonis was pointing at a lasso game. Aerrow walked over and started explaining, giving Piper and Cyclonis his full attention.

It wasn't his complete attention, but it was a start in the right direction.

Finn, Junko, and Dark Ace wandered off to watch Stork and play at a shooting gallery. The targets either moved or were smaller and stationary. Once Dark Ace figured out how to level the bead with the niche, he was fine at the game.

Finn still beat both of them by hitting all of the targets in under a minute.

Junko backed off as the competitive spirit started to burn between them. This could get ugly.

* * *

Stork, after wearing the bull out, wandered over to the lassoing game. After he lassoed a can by using his leg, Master Cyclonis and Piper decided to try the old fashioned hand way.

They sucked. But they kept at it until they accidentally got a prize. After writing down that the toys should be sent to their room, and watching the automatic delivery whisk it away, they turned to the shooting gallery. Finn was winning five to three.

Aerrow prayed that Finn wouldn't let Dark Ace win.

A/N: Should I let Dark Ace win, and find out later that he never had a chance of beating Finn? And I updated 12 and 13 in one day! Yay me! Now I have homework to do, but this was fun! I still have hiccups to use, but I would like more! Thanks for all of the support!


End file.
